false 1452848 17 The first novel by Bernhard Schlink since his international best seller <i>The Reader, Homecoming </i>is the story of one man's odyssey and another man's pursuit.<br><br>A child of World War II, Peter Debauer grew up with his mother and scant memories of his father, a victim of war. Now an adult, Peter embarks upon a search for the truth surrounding his mother's unwavering--but shaky--history and the possibility of finding his missing father after all these years. The search takes him across Europe, to the United States, and back: finding witnesses, falling in and out of love, chasing fragments of a story and a person who may or may not exist. Within a maze of reinvented identities, Peter pieces together a portrait of a man who uses words as one might use a change of clothing, as he assumes a new guise in any given situation simply to stay alive.<br><br>The chase leads Peter to New York City, where he hopes to find the real person behind the disguises. Operating under an assumed identity of his own, Peter unravels the secrets surrounding Columbia University's celebrated political science professor and best-selling author John de Baur, who is known for his incendiary philosophy and the charismatic rapport he has with his students. Terrifying mind games challenge Peter's ability to bring to light the truth surrounding his family history while still holding on to the love of a woman who promises a new life, free of lies and deceit.<br><br><i>Homecoming </i>is a story of fathers and sons, men and women, war and peace. It reveals the humanity that survives the trauma of war and the ongoing possibility for redemption. 2353781 book 2006 Homecoming total:299|5:33|4:68|3:99|2:72|1:27| 299 905 582 85 6067663 0375725571 9780375725579 8 2 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6067663.Homecoming 3 2 false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 12:40:36 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 13:30:40 -0800 2009 The Reader, Schlink's Homecoming uses Homer's Odyssey (in the sense of its being of the class of nostoi) as a metaphor for "homecoming." As is so often the case, this is an example of demanding too much of a metapho...more...]]> 6508323 2 1 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6508323-homecoming 5 1 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jul 02 20:37:51 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 20:38:38 -0700 2009 2
Bernhard Schlink stunned the reading public with his brilliant novel 1999 THE READER and once again with HOMECOMING he proves he is one of our most important authors today. Written in German and translated by Mi...more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Wed Apr 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 16:57:00 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 17:15:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 2 2 false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 28 18:28:52 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 17:17:36 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Wed Nov 26 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 19 19:53:08 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 26 08:27:40 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2985445 0297844725 9780297844723 2 2 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2985445.Homecoming 2 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 02 22:03:30 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 22:04:48 -0800 2009
But the comforting image of friendly train conductors and boat ride...more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 0 0 false Thu Feb 05 09:53:47 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:53:47 -0800 2009 Bernhard Schlink's The Reader (1995), an Oprah Book Club pick, explored a love affair and wartime guilt. Homecoming ruminates on guilt, justice, history, identity, and evil, and it uses the idea of homecoming to chart Peter's journey toward truth and love. Lies surface and questions about identity e...

more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Tue Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 21:38:41 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 20:09:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Wed Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 19:20:39 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 07:09:35 -0700 2009
I can't think of another book that I've read that deals with WWII from the German perspective (and how the G...more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 4 0 false Fri Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 19 18:16:27 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 19 18:34:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Sat Sep 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 02:52:18 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 14:57:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Mon Aug 25 08:11:07 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 06:55:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 03 15:50:55 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 15:52:56 -0700 2008 here:

So first, war: A force that gives us meaning? An opportunity for liars to make off with spoils? A testing ground for a strong system of law?

And what about the remains of a genocidal war? That's what German author Bernhard Schlink (The Reader) deals in his new book, ...more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 5 0 false Sat Jun 14 07:29:37 -0700 2008 Thu May 15 09:31:08 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 14 07:29:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1477484 3257065108 9783257065107 15 5 3.03 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184013353m/1477484.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1477484.Die_Heimkehr 3 0 false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Apr 30 16:41:41 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 17:06:46 -0700 2008
What intrigued me was the connection to classical literature, Homer's Odyssey. There was also a literary detective story which flowed through the book too. It seemed to me that both of these t...more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Thu Mar 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 14 10:00:50 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 14 10:04:31 -0700 2008 Homecoming, based on a brief blurb in USA Today’s Winter books preview: “Moral questions confront children of WWII parents; set in Germany.”

Based on this description, I was expecting something different than I found in Homecoming. Yes, the m...more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 2 0 false Wed Jun 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 17:17:04 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 17:17:54 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 3 0 false Wed Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 01:07:17 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 11 01:37:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1452848 0375420916 9780375420917 259 71 3.03 http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1452848.Homecoming 4 0 false Sat Mar 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 11:17:11 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 14 11:31:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1477484 3257065108 9783257065107 15 5 3.03 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1184013353m/1477484.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1477484.Die_Heimkehr 2 0 false Mon Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 08 05:10:58 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 29 04:35:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=3318308