The Reader audiobook cover - A Novel

The Reader

A Novel

Bernhard Schlink

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HistorySociety & CultureBiography & Memoir

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The Reader
Themes & Context+
The Affair+
The Trial+
Prison Years+
Resolution & Legacy+

Quiz — Test Your Understanding

Question 1 of 7
What does the phrase 'die glücklichen Nachgeborenen' ('the fortunate ones born after') refer to in the context of the novel?
  • A. The generation of Germans born after the war who are free from direct complicity in the Holocaust but burdened by their inheritance.
  • B. The survivors of the concentration camps who managed to start new lives in post-war Germany.
  • C. The children of Jewish survivors who escaped the trauma of Europe to build new lives elsewhere.
  • D. The specific group of young legal scholars who successfully prosecuted war criminals in the 1960s.
Question 2 of 7
How does Michael's attempt to understand his relationship with Hanna frame the central paradox of the novel?
  • A. Those who remember the past are doomed to repeat it, while those who forget are punished.
  • B. Those who seek to understand struggle to judge, while those who judge fail to understand.
  • C. Love requires complete honesty, but honesty inevitably destroys love.
  • D. The victims of a crime cannot forgive, while the perpetrators cannot forget.
Question 3 of 7
What specific ritual becomes a defining part of Michael and Hanna's relationship during his teenage years?
  • A. Cooking meals together and listening to classical music broadcasts.
  • B. Taking long walks through the rubble of the bombed train station.
  • C. Showering, making love, and then Michael reading classic literature aloud to her.
  • D. Michael teaching Hanna how to read and write using his school textbooks.
Question 4 of 7
During the war crimes trial, why does Hanna falsely confess to writing the internal report about the church fire?
  • A. She is trying to protect her former co-guards from harsher prison sentences.
  • B. She believes she deserves to be punished for her overall role in the Holocaust.
  • C. She wants to defy the judge and show her contempt for the post-war legal system.
  • D. She is desperate to hide the fact that she is completely illiterate.
Question 5 of 7
How does Michael reconnect with Hanna while she is serving her prison sentence?
  • A. He visits her weekly to help her prepare her legal appeals.
  • B. He records himself reading books aloud on cassette tapes and sends them to her.
  • C. He writes her long letters detailing his research into the Holocaust.
  • D. He acts as a mediator between her and the surviving victims of the church fire.
Question 6 of 7
What significant personal milestone does Hanna achieve while in prison?
  • A. She earns a university degree in history.
  • B. She learns to read and write by following along with Michael's tapes.
  • C. She writes a memoir detailing her experiences as a camp guard.
  • D. She successfully appeals her conviction and reduces her sentence.
Question 7 of 7
Why does the surviving daughter of the church fire refuse to accept Hanna's money, but agree to keep the tea tin?
  • A. Accepting the money would feel like absolving Hanna of her crimes, but the tin reminds her of a stolen childhood memento.
  • B. She is already wealthy and doesn't need the money, but she collects antique tea tins.
  • C. She believes the money is counterfeit, but the tin has historical value for a Holocaust museum.
  • D. She wants Michael to have the money for his own legal research, but needs the tin to store her family's ashes.

The Reader — Full Chapter Overview

The Reader Summary & Overview

The Reader (1995) tells the story of Michael Berg’s love affair with an older woman, Hanna, and his subsequent discovery that she was a concentration camp guard. How could a woman capable of arousing such passion, warmth, and joy have been complicit in the Holocaust? Michael’s question is the question that haunted an entire generation of Germans born after the war: what drove ordinary men and women to commit such extraordinary horrors? 

Who Should Listen to The Reader?

  • Readers drawn to morally complex love stories
  • Anyone interested in postwar German identity
  • Fans of introspective literary fiction

About the Author: Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink was born in 1944. He holds a doctorate in constitutional law and was a law professor in Bonn and Frankfurt. He currently holds a chair in public law and legal philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin. Schlink’s first work of fiction, the crime novel Self’s Punishment, was published in 1987. The Reader appeared in 1995. Translated into forty languages, it was the first German book to make it onto the New York Times bestseller list. 

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