To be read for this coming month's book club.

Wow. Intense in places, difficult in others, but good! Schlink wrote about the struggles of the generation of Germans who came after WWII to deal with those who had participated in or even just lived through the atrocities. Michael Berg, 15 in 1958, falls in love with Hannah Schmitz, a woman more than twice his age. Hannah seems to revel in the physical relationship with Michael, but not really share any emotion with him, preferring instead to make love or have him read to her. She disappears one day, and years later, Michael sees her at a trial he is attending for a class. Hannah, it seems, was an SS guard at a concentration camp during WWII. The realization shocks Michael, and leads to exploration on his part. Hannah, as it turns out, has more than one secret, which has changed her whole life.

What makes a person do the things they do? How can we respond to our past, to the past of our families and friends, to the past of our nation? What is our relationship to past shame? And what can a person be excused for doing our of personal pride, or ignorance, or both. Lots of challenges here.

Left on a table in the waiting area for Unit B.

I picked up this book at my doctor's offices waiting area on 3/3/2011. Finished it last night. Wonderful read! Captured my imagination. Well-written - good characterization. Easy to see myself in the narrator - not so much in the character Hanna. I plan to share it with a friend.