The Reader

In post-war Germany, teenager Michael Berg begins a passionate, secret affair with Hanna, a woman twice his age. Years later, as a law student observing a trial for Nazi war crimes, Michael is stunned to find Hanna in the dock. As he listens to the proceedings, he uncovers a secret that she would rather go to prison for than reveal—a secret that challenges everything he thought he knew about the woman he loved and the generation that came before him.

Bernhard Schlink delivers a sparse, devastating, and deeply philosophical novel that explores the moral complexities of the Holocaust and the enduring power of literature to both bridge and expose the gaps between us.