Bernhard Schlink

A sweeping novel of love and passion from author of the international bestseller The Reader about a woman out of step with her time, whose life is witness to some of the most tumultuous events of modern age.Abandoned by her parents, young Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village in the early years of the twentieth century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against ingrained chauvinism to find her place in a world run by lesser men.When Olga falls in love with her neighbor, Herbert, the son of a local aristocrat, her life is irremediably changed. While Herbert indulges his thirst for exploration and adventure, Olga is limited by her gender and circumstance. Her love for Herbert goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, but even when they are separated, it enduresUnfolding across decades--from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century--and across continents--from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west--Olga is an epic romance, and a wrenching tale of a woman's devotion to a restless man in an age of constant change. Though Olga exists in the shadows of others, she pursues life to the fullest and her magnetic presence shines--revealing a woman complex, fascinating, and unforgettable. Told in three distinct parts, brilliantly shifting from different points of view and narrative formats, Bernhard Schlink's magnificent novel is a rich, full portrait of a singular woman and her world.Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

A sweeping novel of love and passion from author of the international bestseller The Reader about a woman out of step with her time, whose life is witness to some of the most tumultuous events of modern age.Abandoned by her parents, young Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village in the early years of the twentieth century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against ingrained chauvinism to find her place in a world run by lesser men.When Olga falls in love with her neighbor, Herbert, the son of a local aristocrat, her life is irremediably changed. While Herbert indulges his thirst for exploration and adventure, Olga is limited by her gender and circumstance. Her love for Herbert goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, but even when they are separated, it enduresUnfolding across decades--from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century--and across continents--from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west--Olga is an epic romance, and a wrenching tale of a woman's devotion to a restless man in an age of constant change. Though Olga exists in the shadows of others, she pursues life to the fullest and her magnetic presence shines--revealing a woman complex, fascinating, and unforgettable. Told in three distinct parts, brilliantly shifting from different points of view and narrative formats, Bernhard Schlink's magnificent novel is a rich, full portrait of a singular woman and her world.Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

A #1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Bernhard Schlink speaks straight to the heart' New York Times'Brilliant... A tale of love and loss in 20th century Germany' Evening Standard'A cleverly-constructed tale of cross-class romance' Mail on Sunday'A poignant portrait of a woman out of step with her time' Observer Olga is an orphan raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees her as second-best.When she falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with the era's dreams of power, glory and greatness, her life is irremediably changed.Theirs is a love against all odds, entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west.This is the story of that love, of Olga's devotion to a restless man - told in thought, letters and in a fateful moment of great rebellion.

"Compelling . . . unfailingly interesting, building suspense as readers wonder what will happen" --Booklist (starred review)"Schlink knows how to tell a gripping yarn . . . The Granddaughter] is a rewarding and wonderfully readable novel." --The Guardian"A brilliant dissection of a fragmented nation in which a glimmer of hope relieves a somber but wholly memorable tale." --Kirkus (starred review)From the bestselling author of The Reader, a striking exploration of the past, told through the story of a German bookseller's attempt to connect with his radicalized granddaughter.It is only after the sudden death of his wife, Birgit, that Kaspar discovers the price she paid years earlier when she fled East Germany to join him: she had to abandon her baby. Shattered by grief, yet animated by a new hope, Kaspar closes up his bookshop in present day Berlin and sets off to find her lost child in the east.His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, intent on reclaiming and settling ancestral lands to the East. Among them, Kaspar encounters Svenja, a woman whose eyes, hair, and even voice remind him of Birgit. Beside her is a red-haired, slouching, fifteen-year-old girl. His granddaughter? Their worlds could not be more different-- an ideological gulf of mistrust yawns between them-- but he is determined to accept her as his own.More than twenty-five years after The Reader, Bernhard Schlink once again offers a masterfully gripping novel that powerfully probes the past's role in contemporary life, transporting us from the divided Germany of the 1960s to modern day Australia, and asking what unites or separates us.Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

Growing up with his mother in Germany, Peter Debauer knows little about his father, an apparent victim of the Second World War. But when he stumbles upon a few pages from a long-lost novel, Peter embarks on a quest that leads him across Europe to the United States, chasing fragments of a story within a story and a master of disguises who may or may not exist. Homecoming is a tale 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.

'Treading carefully on thin ice, that was the only way . . . ' At seventy-six, Martin is devoted to his family life with his young wife and six-year-old son when he suddenly learns that he has only a few months to live. Shocked, he searches for answers, wrestling with his feelings and existential questions about his legacy, the meaning of his love and what can be achieved in the short time he has left. Martin wants to do everything right, but later life is full of surprises and unforeseen challenges that he must face. The Late Life is a story of navigating family, guilt, love and loss from Bernhard Schlink, one of the most masterful novelists of our age. Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

Romaani katkenneista siteistä ja sukupolvien taakasta. ”Merkittävä analyysi sirpaloituneesta kansasta [...] toivon kipinä keventää synkkää mutta ikimuistoista tarinaa.” Kirkus Reviews Kesällä 1964 itäsaksalainen Birgit ja länsisaksalainen Kaspar rakastuvat, ja aloittavat yhteisen elämän Länsi-Saksassa. Vasta Birgitin kuoleman jälkeen Kaspar saa tietää salaisuuden, jota vaimo kantoi koko avioliiton ajan: paetessaan länteen Birgit jätti taakseen pienen tyttären. Päätös etsiä tytär vie Kasparin matkalle menneisyyteen ja Saksojen yhdistymisen jättämiin arpiin - ja kohti nuorta naista, jonka maailma on täysin erilainen kuin hänen omansa. Voiko yhteys syntyä yli vuosikymmenten ja maitten välisen kuilun? Bernhard Schlink (s. 1944) työskenteli lakimiehenä, ja syyllisyyden ja hyvityksen teemat toistuvat myös hänen romaaneissaan. Niistä tunnetuin on elokuvanakin nähty Lukija. Schlink aloitti kirjallisen uransa jännityskirjailijana, ja hän on säilyttänyt yllätyksellisen tyylin myöhemmässäkin tuotannossaan.

Roman o prichudakh istorii i pamjati ot avtora mezhdunarodnogo bestsellera "Chtets". V knige rasskazana istorija ljubvi zhenschiny, vynuzhdennoj idti protiv predrassudkov svoego vremeni, i muzhchiny, osleplennogo mechtami o velichii i vlasti. Ikh redkie vstrechi na kraju propasti, kuda vskore dolzhen byl obrushitsja ves mir, dali nachalo novoj zhizni i novoj legende. Ej suzhdeno bylo projti skvoz gody velikikh potrjasenij, chtoby voskresnut v pismakh, mechtakh i vospominanijakh, gde vse oshibki budut ispravleny, a vina - proschena i zabyta...

For fifteen-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair. He never learns very much about her and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: what should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? The Reader is an international bestseller and a true modern classic, examining the gap between Germany's pre- and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence.

Tebe semdesjat shest let, u tebja molodaja zhena i shestiletnij rebenok, i tebe ostalos zhit neskolko mesjatsev. Kak ty ikh provedesh? Martin, byvshij prepodavatel, jurist i istorik prava, uznaet, chto u nego smertelnyj diagnoz, i teper emu nado splanirovat ostatok zhizni. Chto ty zakhochesh uspet, znaja, chto cherez neskolko mesjatsev te, kogo ty ljubish, rasstanutsja s toboj navsegda? Chto ty mozhesh im zaveschat - kakie obschie dela, kakie vospominanija, kakie chuvstva? Dolzhen li ty chto-to zaveschat? Vazhnye nauchnye stati, pismo synu, svobodu svoej zhene? I kakie sjurprizy sposobna prepodnesti pozdnjaja zhizn? Bernkhard Shlink, sovremennyj klassik nemetskoj literatury, laureat mnogochislennykh literaturnykh premij, avtor bestsellerov "Chtets" i "Vnuchka", napisal novyj roman - o ljubvi i ee neozhidannykh litsakh i o tikhoj otvage pered litsom neizbezhnogo. Vpervye na russkom! Perevodchik Roman Ejvadis

'Anyone who wants to understand contemporary Germany must read The Granddaughter now' Le Monde 'The great novel of German reunification' Le Figaro 'A masterpiece' Maurice SzafranMay, 1964. At a youth festival in East Berlin, an unlikely young couple fall in love. In the bright spring days, anything seems possible for them - it is only many years later, after her death, that Kaspar discovers the price his wife paid to get to him in West Berlin. Shattered by grief, Kaspar sets off to uncover Birgit's secrets in the East. His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, and to a young girl who accepts him as her grandfather. Their worlds could not be more different - but he is determined to fight for her. From the author of the no.1 international bestseller The Reader, The Granddaughter is a gripping novel that transports us from the divided Germany of the 1960s to contemporary Australia, asking what might be found when it seems like all is lost.Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins