Review: The houses in Germany, in Berlin, lie nestled together as close as two lovers. Their multi-storied structures overlook the sidewalks on which pedestrians pass from home to work or to school or to the market and back again. Neighborhoods are filled with friends who call out to each other, who joke, and who share the day over similar chores or chance encounters. It is here, on these sidewalks, that fifteen year-old Michael Berg nearly collapses as he fights an illness and is rescued by Frau Schmitz. It is there, in her home, fresh from vomiting that the seeds of passion are planted. He falls in love with her, a woman twice his age.
Michael has been missing school for nearly six months while he recovers. His first foray out on his own led him to Frau Schmitz. When he returns to thank her for her assistance, she invites him in. During this visit he accidentally sees her in her slip, and he finds himself at her door one week later, a teenage boy who has been overwhelmed by fantasies and desire. She takes him in her arms, and they enter into a passionate physical relationship.
Overtime, she begins asking him to read to her, and his visits become more than love-making. Together they explore books together. First Michael catches up on his sophomore reading but eventually even Tolstoy cannot escape their ritual. Their time passes as lover’s time will, separated by moments of ecstasy and heartache. Until one day Hanna Schmitz is gone.
When Michael meets her next, it seems a lifetime has passed, except that now he observes Hanna from afar and discovers her disturbing past.

Recommendation: Let’s face it: most books that make it into movies are good. Whether the movie is good or not is another matter. This book is no different. Its rich character exploration, highlighted by the first person narrative, will seduce the reader with both direct and coy story telling. There is nothing flashy in the writing. Like the character of Hanna Schmitz ,it is blunted and unwavering. This is a simple book about simple people in a complicated world. Those two things cannot help but collide.
But there is something to be said for a book like this. It catches the reader off guard and then leans in until the balance one hopes to maintain is almost impossible to regain. When all is said and done, when the last page is turned, life goes back to normal only because the writing has stopped. I am positive that the story will continue to resound even after you hear the last scrape of the page as you turn it.

Schlink, Bernard. The Reader, Vintage Books, New York, 1999.

Currently Reading: The Known World by Edward P. Jones

On Deck: Matter by Iain Banks