The Reader - Bernhard Schlink

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERHailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany.

"A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel."-Los Angeles Times

When he falls ill on his way home
from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his
age. In time she becomes his lover-then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael
next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime.
As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that
Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.