Amazon.co.uk Review
Originally published in Switzerland and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading and shame in post-war Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"
The Reader, which won the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, wrestles with many more demons in its few, remarkably lucid pages. What does it mean to love those people--parents, grandparents, even lovers--who committed the worst atrocities the world has ever known? And is any atonement possible through literature? Schlink's prose is clean and pared down, stripped of unnecessary imagery, dialogue and excess in any form. What remains is an austerely beautiful narrative of the attempt to breach the gap between Germany's pre and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent and between words and silence. --R Ellis, Amazon.com

I picked this book up from the bookshelf in the room I was staying in whilst having a holiday in France. I thought it might be a good read after reading a sci-fi and only having more sci-fi with me to read, enabling me to break it all up somewhat.

The story line drew me in quite quickly but there was something about the writing style that didn't allow me to love this book, perhaps it wasn't 'smooth' enough....maybe this accounts for the book having been translated into English I am not sure.

I found the relationship quite interesting to read, and enjoyed the insights provided by the narrator who was an adult looking back at memories. I felt that there were some unnecessary comments about poor memory throughout the re-telling of the story, yet so many vivid details were included into the story and perhaps only one or two comments about poor memory were necessary. The book enabled the narrator to demonstrate the importance of perspective...i.e. looking back the narrator had more understanding of the actions taken by his lover despite his confusion as a teenager at the time.

I didn’t feel moved or particularly emotional when reading about the court scene, I had worked out one of the main twists at this point, however and found myself frustrated by the actions of Hanna and when the twist was revealed in the book I couldn’t help thinking, yeah I know already!! I’m not sure i really connected with Hanna’s character very well which in turn had an impact upon my enjoyment of the book itself. The narrator defended his memories of Hanna during his teenage years but this didn’t allow me to get emotionally attached to her during my read.

To be taken along to the Salcey forest meet and put on the table...if not picked up by someone from there it will be released somewhere along the footpaths at Salcey for a wild release!

Picked up from the book table at Salcey Forest today to pass on.

I read it a while ago and said I wish I'd read the book before seeing the film.

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