There are very few novels that come along and movesyou. The Reader is one of those novels. Michael, a young German boy falls in love with a woman who is twice his age; Hanna and begins a sexual affair with her. Their affair alters both of their lives allowing them to grow together and seperate. The novel is split into three sections: the affair, Hanna's war trial, and Hanna's imprisonment and Michael seeking the truth.
Throughout Part One Michael is tormented thinking that he causes Hanna pain because he doesn't tell his friends about her and lives his life as a fifteen year old boy does. Michael knows nothing of Hanna's past or even her present aside from the fact that she is a streetcar conductor. One day Hanna suddenly disappears; Michael doesn't see her again until he is a law student attending a trial on Nazi war crimes.
Part two revolves around the trial and Michael's reaction to realizing the woman he loved and had a physical relationship with was an SS guard criminal.  He struggles with his repulsion of her past actions/crimes and his love for this woman.  He wonders should he feel guilty for loving a woman who is capable of commiting such hideous crime?   The third and final section of the nove focuses on Michael's acceptance of the past: his and Hanna's and works to move forward. 

This is a novel that everyone should read.  One can spend hours discussing it and it's underlying themes hidden within the novel.  Schlink's novel captivates it's readers and draws them into the bedroom with Hanna and Michael as well as into the trial room.  The emotions of both Michael and Hanna are carried through the words Schlink chooses and the way he describes everything.

Recommended: Yes