... когато е пропуснат правилният момент, когато някой твърде дълго е отказвал нещо, когато някому твърде дълго е било отказвано нещо, то идва твърде късно, дори в крайна сметка да е усвоено с усилие и прието с радост. Или може би "твърде късно" не съществува, има само "късно", а "късно" при всички положения, е по-добре от "никога".

"Четецът" от Бернхард Шлинг, беше една от онези книги, които дълго отлагах във времето. Понякога всеки читател си има усещане кога трябва или не трябва да посегне към даден роман. Дали е интуиция не знам, но съм убедена, че историята, която трябва да те намери, винаги стига до теб.

За тази история ми е трудно да говоря и не знам как да ви опиша какво ме накара да почувствам. Беше моята книга. Авторът успя да каже всичко: кратко, красиво, рационално, логично, подредено, неемоционално и в същото време, така че да ти пръсне сърцето от емоция. Многократно затварях книгата по средата на някое изречение в опит да се самосъхраня.

Хана е на 34, Михаел на 15, когато се срещат и започват любовна афера. Михаел се влюбва в Хана, Хана обича той да й чете. Но любовта не стига и двамата се разминават във времето. Срещат се години по-късно, когато Михаел е студент по право и попада в съдебната зала на дело, което се води срещу Хана. Дело срещу жената, заемала длъжността надзирател в Аушвиц.

През целият роман присъстваме в спомените на нашия главен герой. Книгата е ретроспективна и е разписана като поток на мисълта. Истинска вихрушка от емоции, от морални и етични казуси, от въпроси кое е допустимо и кое не е. Военното време прави ли те лош човек или войната е само оправдание. Маска, зад която се крием и вършим злини.

Rating: Excellent

Genre: Historical Fiction + Literary Fiction

Michael Berg is a fifteen-year-old boy who by chance meets a woman called Hanna. She helps him and the two start to have a very passionate and erotic affair together. They make love and the boy starts reading regularly to the woman and becomes her reader. Many years later when Michael becomes a law student, he is shocked to see the same woman on a trial in Germany being questioned about her role in a horrible war crime. Faced with a dilemma, Michael knows a secret about Hanna that she keeps hiding and could reduce her sentence. But will he do it? Will he betray her?

“I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.”


The book consists of three parts and narrated from Michael’s point of view. I have watched the movie adaptation which stars Kate Winslet in which she portrayed the main character Hanna for which she won the Academy Award for best actress that year. I loved the film a lot and decided to read the book but I wanted to wait until I couldn’t remember much about the film. Today is about 13 years since I’ve watched the film and while reading the story I kept remembering Kate Winslet in every frame and scene from the book. I understand this is not a story that is suitable for every reader. There are several trigger warnings.

“What is law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actually enacted and obeyed in a society? Or is law what must be enacted and obeyed, whether or not it is on the books, if things are to go right?”


The writing style is very beautiful and shows lots of emotional depth in a few words. I feel both the main characters were persons with so little to say yet their emotions talked a lot about them. The author brilliantly captured Hanna’s different emotional states without her saying much. Michael’s maturity can be felt by the readers during the three different life stages. When it comes to the subjects the book tackles they are many, the taboo relationship, Holocaust crimes, and crimes against humanity, the shame of illiteracy, and how much a person can say he knows others to be then shocked by what he didn’t know. There is a lot that this story tells without the need to get into tedious details. I loved it!

“...if something hurts me, the hurts I suffered back then come back to me, and when I feel guilty, the feelings of guilt return; if I yearn for something today, or feel homesick, I feel the yearnings and homesickness from back then. The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive.”

There are some books you know will stay with you forever, and Bernhard Schlink's The Reader is definitely one of them. It has been highly critically acclaimed, winning the Boston Book Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, and it deserves all the praise it has received.

The Holocaust is a difficult, though much covered, subject matter, and this novel has a sure touch and an appealing lack of judgment with it. The story begins in the world of almost-childhood of fifteen-year-old Michael Berg, recovering from a summer of hepatitis, begins a relationship with Hanna, a much older woman he meets by chance. The first part of the novel, untouched by the shadow of the recent war or Germany's disturbed and dangerous past, deals with Michael and Hanna's burgeoning relationship, and the little fears and worries that can make up one big problem. Eventually, as we know it must, their relationship ends and Hanna moves away.

When the book moves on to the second part, the tone has changed considerably. Michael, now a law student, attends the trial of female Nazi war criminals. To his shock, one of them is Hanna, who had been a camp guard at Auschwitz. I won't say more for fear of spoiling it for you, but the Holocaust is seriously considered in the light of philosophy and moral responsibility. There is an attitude that one becomes numb to the horror of it all if too exposed to it, and this book does not go into ghastly detail, but rather examines even more painful details: who was to blame, how do we live with the suffering, how can one atone, and most of all, what is the next generation to do?

It also looks at what it means to love someone, how much we can accept of them and how blind we can be to those we love. Love, guilt and betrayal feature prominently in this novel.

In many ways Hanna was innocent, and yet it becomes apparent that she lived every day with terrible guilt; Michael was a victim of her actions, and yet he too is guilty by association. The reader of the title is Michael, who read to Hanna during the early part of the relationship; the reader is Hanna, alone in prison occupying herself by learning about the experiences of camp inmates. The reader is selected individuals in the camps who read aloud to Hanna, and may have died because of it. But most of all, the reader is ourselves; the title points the finger at us, because now we have the knowledge, what should we do with it? If all it takes for evil to prevail is for the good to remain silent, then how innocent are any of us? And how can we deal with the subsequent guilt? There are so many layers to this subtly complex novel that having just finished it, I have to start it again. The transforming power of words is negated by their ultimate futility, and actions in this novel speak deafeningly loud.

If we have a responsibility towards the past, to learn from it, and I believe we do, then this book will help us to go some way towards fulfilling it.

Μια συγκλονιστική ιστορία ενηλικίωσης μέσα από μια ερωτική σχέση με φόντο τη ναζιστική γερμανία. Με μια ήρεμη δύναμη η αφήγηση απογειώνει το συναίσθημα. Κλείνω την αναγνωστική χρονιά μου με ένα ίσως από τα καλύτερα βιβλία που έχω διαβάσει!

On my last-minute whim,
I grabbed,
a story of an erotic love affair between
a 15-year-old German boy, Michael Berg,
and 35-year-old, Hanna Schmitz!
Suffering from hepatitis and Hanna nurturing him,
In due course both develop passionate feelings for each other.
They keep their relationship under wraps.
He would read out to her, and not vice-versa (avoiding spoilers, on why?)
Eventually, as Michael matures, the relationship starts dwindling,
Hanna disappears into thin air!
Destiny bestows a second encounter between the two,
but in vexatious circumstances.
He is a law student, and Hanna is on a trial as an SS concentration camp guard,
with numerous deaths charged against her during the bombing!
What follows is all circled around discovering whether Hanna is guilty and be incarcerated,
or is innocent (avoiding spoilers)?
The biggest remnant-
He couldn’t love anyone other than Hanna!

n  My Views-n
Originally published in German, I found the English translation to be weak, thin, sporadic, and sparse, and it couldn’t endow an awe-inspiring feeling to me! I just couldn’t stay riveted, irrespective of the compelling plot premise. ☹

Not to mention, the novel got numerous accolades and raving terrific reviews, but this may sound like an outlier.

I was attracted due to the premise around WWII (the holocaust era) and an unwonted love story weaving in the backdrop, between two individuals from totally different backgrounds and a stark age difference.

But honestly, I remained neutral. It didn’t arouse any feelings in me, I couldn’t marry the characters, and found them scattered and weak! The biggest takeaway for me was the fact literacy is a massive accomplishment, and can never be compromised!

The entire narration is from Michael’s point of view, and I am sure the original German text must have done justice to the brilliant plot premise, and so acquired raving positive reviews.
But the English translation just faltered for me, and made my reading experience insipid and banal! I just couldn’t wed the plot, due to the sporadicity.

Without any further belaboring, I close the review, by giving a respectful 3 stars!

NB- Resonating with writing style/translation is a subjective topic, and request people not to take the rating universally. It is strictly my point-of-view, and request readers to explore this short book, with a marvelous plot-line! :) It is my behove, to be honest with my views and rating, and try to do the same with all my reviews.

--an edition with images from the 2008 movie, The Reader (which I haven't seen), with Kate Winslett in the character of Hanna Schmitz and Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg

When I was in my early 20s, I fell in love with somebody I could not have, that is, he was not the marrying kind. After a while a friend of mine, a slightly older contemporary, told me that man I loved was bisexual, which ended my attraction, just like that. I wasn't repulsed--nothing like that; but the bond was broken.

I had another female friend, a fellow graduate student, who had an affair with the head of the facility where we both were doing our internships. She broke off with her boyfriend, for how could someone her same age compete with the attentions of the powerful established male? Subsequently, she never married, never had children.

Those affairs in academia between male professors and female students have only recently come to be considered wrong--an abuse of power. Think Arendt and Heidegger, or even Abelard and Heloise. (Yes I know he got in big trouble, but it was for damaging Heloise's uncle's property, not for sexually abusing a person in his custody.)

In my own situation, the young man was my same age, possibly a factor. And I never even found out for sure if he were really bisexual. But in any case, not all romantic attraction ends when the object of affection turns out to be unsuitable. Think of the movie The Crying Game, in which Stephen Rea's character maintained some sort of fixation on Jaye Davidson's character, even after he found out all was not as it had seemed.


--Stephen Rea and Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game, 1992

Sometimes, who one loves, or, maybe, who one becomes imprinted on, is unaccountable. But the impact--in these cases, the distorting impact--is real.

Not to mention the impact of history and context within which our loves and attachments are set. What a complicated scenario this book describes: the consequences of wrongness along multiple dimensions, through and through.


You could tell from the title that this book is about reading:

I began with the Odyssey. I read it after Gertrud and I had separated. There were many nights when I couldn't sleep for more than a few hours; I would lie awake, and when I switched on the light and picked up a book, my eyes closed, and when I put the book down and turned off the light, I was wide awake again. So I read aloud, and my eyes didn't close. And because in all my confused half-waking thoughts that swirled in tormenting circles of memories and dreams around my marriage and my daughter and my life, it was always Hanna who predominated, I read to Hanna. I read to Hanna on tape.
...

In general I read to Hanna the things I wanted to read myself at any given moment. With the Odyssey, I found at first that it was hard to take in as much when I read aloud as when I read silently to myself. But that changed. The disadvantage of reading aloud remained the fact that it took longer. But books read aloud also stayed long in my memory. Even today, I can remember things in them absolutely clearly.

Also, it's about writing:

When I began writing myself, I read these pieces aloud to her as well. I waited until I had dictated my handwritten text, and revised the typewritten version, and had the feeling that now it was finished. When I read it aloud, I could tell if the feeling was right or not. And if not, I could revise and record a new version over the old. But I didn't like doing that. I wanted to have my reading be the culmination. Hanna became the court before which once again I concentrated all my energies, all my creativity, all my critical imagination. After that, I could send the manuscript to the publisher.

This is a haunting tale of a boy's first love and the impact on his life, both personally and philosophically.

Not a light read by any means-- it is filled with unanswerable questions which border on painful-- especially in light of its Holocaust setting.

Translated from German, I'm sure the book is much more personal to the generations who grew up in a Germany clouded by the legacy of the Holocaust. Having read the book, I'm now looking forward to the screen version.


(Note— the movie has some moving scenes but read the book first.)

An Intensely powerful story and I'm still thinking "What do I do with this one??"

15 year old Michael Berg becomes sick and suddenly meets Hanna Schmitz, a much older woman who lives in his neighborhood. She helps him and they begin a relationship. He reads to her, and the intimacy is so strong that I'm not even sure how I should feel about it. It feels real and raw, and dripping in lust, while at the same time, it feels wrong, and I'm left feeling something hollow and wondering if the moral question is bigger than the reality.

Fast forward and Michael Berg finds himself on a panel listening to a court case against SS soldiers during WWII, and who should happen to walk onto the stand-- but Hanna Schmitz. Their relationship is complex and detailed. So many emotions and thoughts cross my mind, and at the end of the book, I'm still not sure how I should feel.

**This review contains spoilers since what I have to say about this book can't be expressed without revealing details. If you haven't read this book and wish to, you should stop reading now...**

If I had read this book, 'The Reader' by Bernhard Schlink a decade ago, I would have felt much differently about it than I do reading it now. This book, a thin volume at just 218 pages, presents moral situations or dilemmas which invite the reader to consider his own feelings and beliefs. I am much less rigid in my views now than I was even a decade ago. This story occurs in post-World War II Germany and centers around 15-year-old Michael Berg and a woman names Hanna Schmitz. On his way home from school one day, Michael became violently ill while on the street. As fate would have it, Hanna Schmitz was nearby and helped Michael get back to his home. Michael was ill with hepatitis for quite some time but when he began to feel better, he sought out Hanna to thank her for her assistance. Michael and Hanna.. a woman more than twice his age.. began a sexual relationship, creating the first of several dilemmas in this story.

Although I personally did not find this aspect of the story romantic or erotic, given my understanding of adolescent hormones and adult loneliness, I wasn't at all surprised by the development of this relationship. Putting moral issues aside and looking at this relationship from a reasonable and logical viewpoint, a relationship with a person who never calls you by your given name but simply 'kid' is probably an omen. Also, any relationship which is secret is never a healthy one. secrets isolate the people involved from family, friends and peers... so this relationship, to me, was doomed from the outset. And as I expected, one day, Hanna simply disappeared.. leaving Michael with no explanation but with plenty of guilt. he couldn't stop wondering if he had done something which forced her to leave. Michael had no way of knowing it at the time but Hanna was on the run, not from him but to conceal certain truths about herself.

It was years later that Michael saw Hanna again. By this time, he was studying law and his education was coinciding with Nazi War Crimes trials occurring in various towns. Michael's law seminar was encouraged to attend a trial which was taking place in a neighboring town. The students and professors would be following the trial of a group of women camp guards. The law students were ambitious in their agenda and relentless in discovering the truth. They were interested in defining.. "What IS law? Is it what is on the books, or what is actively enacted and obeyed in society?" What was occurring in Germany at that time was that the younger generation was examining and discussing the crimes perpetrated during World War II so that they could discover the degree of guilt and responsibility which should be assigned to their elders. I should mention that what the students were doing was not particularly popular nor was it welcomed by some people in society. The trials being held didn't hold much interest for some and "literally repelled others."

I found this particular section of the story to be compelling and of great interest. I, of course, was not all that surprised by the citizens who wished to avoid these trials or who wanted to forget about what had happened. I was intrigued by the enthusiasm of the students who were determined to display all the facts.. withholding nothing... so that the responsibility and culpability of society could be determined. I suppose this can be explained as the zealotry that often characterizes youth. And of course, it was most likely difficult to avoid dealing with these issues completely when the country had been forced onto the world stage to account for war crimes.. crimes against humanity. But I couldn't help but think about Germany's reluctant assent to shine a light on the atrocities that had been committed and compare it to how the United States has typically handled the atrocities it has committed over the years. Usually, this country (the US) develops a sort of collective amnesia. Then we simply rewrite history so that it is clear to anyone who questions that we have a mandate bestowed upon us from God because we are an 'exceptional' or special people. It's definitely something to consider if you ever find yourself wanting to condemn the actions of another country....

When Michael Berg walked into the courtroom, he immediately noticed Hanna Schmitz. Hanna had been one of the women camp guards and now she would be expected to account for her actions. The scene was highly dramatic and I could feel the pieces of the puzzle which had been Hanna Schmitz, begin to fall into place for Michael. Her behaviors... her reticence to talk about herself and her life.. began to make sense for the first time.But Hanna was holding tightly to one more secret... a secret she would rather die for than have it exposed to the world. Michael finally put the missing pieces together.. her running away, her inability to stay with any one job for long and even her recruitment by the Nazis to guard women prisoners at Auschwitz ... all of this had been to keep the fact that she was illiterate from the world.

I have to admit that although the clues were there in the story, I had not guessed that Hanna's big secret was her illiteracy. Up until that big reveal, Hanna had not been a sympathetic nor an understandable character. But when I realized that she was illiterate, I couldn't help but feel compassion for her. Perhaps she was not deserving of compassion because any sympathy shown to her was far more than she had demonstrated to the women prisoners whose lives she controlled. But illiteracy has a personal meaning for me. Several years ago, after the death of a family member, our family discovered that this family member had been illiterate . He had been able to keep this secret through the diligence and aid from his wife for more than 50 years. It was a shocking revelation and all I could think about was the huge amount of energy he must have expended daily to hide this from his family, his co-workers.. from the world. His obvious shame and humiliation were all I could think about and it broke my heart. And Hanna's illiteracy... it was something I could not only imagine but feel a personal connection to. I believe Michael felt that sense of compassion for Hanna as well.. although he felt it wasn't an excuse for her actions. Instead of reporting this discovery to the judges, he allowed her to keep her secret.. even though it meant she would spend a much longer time in prison. Did Michael do the right thing? I think in realizing that allowing Hanna to maintain her privacy and dignity was more important than potentially having her prison sentence reduced.

I have been thinking about this story a great deal.. even though I finished reading it days ago. To me, the story of Michael Berg and Hanna Schmitz was not simply their singular, personal story. What occurred in their lives seemed somehow symbolic of the tragedy of a nation... of the world... tragic events which the entire world talks about, writes about and tries to make sense of more than seven decades later.

Okumaya başladığım ilk günden beri eve dönüp elime almak için sabırsızlandım. Daha yarısına bile gelmemişken çok etkilenmiştim, bitirdiğimdeyse tokat yemiş gibi oldum. Gördüğümüzü sandığımız herşeyin altındaki asıl görünmez, yıkıcı toplumsal yargılar, tutkular, duygular, bende tarifsiz pek çok noktaya temas etti, iz bıraktı. Özellikle 136.sayfada anlamakla mahkum etmek arasında sıkışıp kalmışlık haline dair olan yazılanları taa içimde hissettim. Yutkunduğum ve cevaplarını kendimde aradığım çok duygu hali yaşadım. Hikayenin finaliyse gerçekten esaslı bir tokat attı bana. Bir kere daha "evet iyi ki filmi izlemeyi sonraya bırakmışım" dedim. Böyle ifadeler başka okuyucularda büyük beklentiler yaratıyor biliyorum. Kendi okuma tecrübemden kendime not düştüğüm bu satırlar keşke size bir beklenti yaratmasa da sadece tadına varsanız. Herkeste bir iz bırakacağına emin olduğum bir roman Okuyucu.

Magnífico libro. La adaptación cinematográfica es muy buena también.

I'm sure this is a story that will stick with me for a LONG time and it definitely left a profound impact...
I especially found it interesting how the topic of guilt was explored from different perspectives, namely: the abuser side, the abused side, the criminal side, the parental side and the entire society as a whole towards war crimes.

That being said, I need to let this book sink in a bit before I can formulate and articulate my thoughts in a proper review. I hope to get to it soon!