The Reader is both a literary surprise and a moral challenge: a
riveting, provocative, and deeply moving novel about a young boy's
erotic awakening in a passionate, clandestine love affair with an
older woman, and what happens to them both when the secrets in her
past are revealed. Fifteen-year-old Michael Berg becomes ill on the
way home from school. A woman takes care of him. Later, the boy
arrives at her home with a bunch of flowers to thank her. And then
comes back again. Hanna is the first woman he has ever desired. But
there is something slightly off-key about her. His questions about
her family and her life go unanswered. One day Hanna simply
disappears. Michael's life goes on, but he can't forget her.
Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael
is shocked to realize that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman
he had loved so passionately is a criminal. Much about her behavior
during the trial makes no sense. But then, suddenly and terribly, it
does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she
is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret. As the past
erupts into the present - both Michael's past with Hanna, and the
past of Germany itself - Michael must accept that he will never be
free of either of them.
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