The audio I listened to was read by Campbell Scott who did a great job. This was a fairly quick listen on just 4 discs. The premise of the story was interesting. A 15 year old boy, Michael Berg, becomes ill on his way from school and is helped by a woman, Anna, considerably older than himself. They soon become lovers in spite of their age difference. They continue to spend considerable amounts of time together and she asks him to read to her, which he does. Eventually the relationship ends when Anna disappears. Some years later, when Michael is studying law, he comes across Anna again when she is on trial for war crimes while she was a Nazi guard. For reasons that he cannot at first determine, she does not make any attempt to defend herself. By the time he realizes her reasons for remaining silent, it is too late to help. Interesting and well written, but a sad tale.
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
3 stars
The audio I listened to was read by Campbell Scott who did a great job. This was a fairly quick listen on just 4 discs. The premise of the story was interesting. A 15 year old boy, Michael Berg, becomes ill on his way from school and is helped by a woman, Anna, considerably older than himself. They soon become lovers in spite of their age difference. They continue to spend considerable amounts of time together and she asks him to read to her, which he does. Eventually the relationship ends when Anna disappears. Some years later, when Michael is studying law, he comes across Anna again when she is on trial for war crimes while she was a Nazi guard. For reasons that he cannot at first determine, she does not make any attempt to defend herself. By the time he realizes her reasons for remaining silent, it is too late to help. Interesting and well written, but a sad tale.