The Reader

30th anniversary edition of the internationally bestselling modern classic that became an Oscar-winning film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, published with a striking new design

Deeply moving, sensitive enough to make me wince, a Holocaust novel, but light years away from the common run

Schlink's extraordinary novel The Reader is a compelling meditation on the connections between Germany's past and its present, dramatised with extreme emotional intelligence as the story of a relationship between the narrator and an older woman. It has won deserved praise across Europe for the tact and power with which it handles its material, both erotic and philosophical

Leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart . . . a moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful work

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink is the German novel I have been waiting for: it objectifies the Holocaust and legitimately makes all mankind responsible

For generations to come, people will be reading and marvelling over Bernhard Schlink's The Reader

Haunting and unforgettable

[Schlink] explores the conflict between generations, wrestling with collective guilt and individual motivation. He examines the nature if understanding and tests the limits of forgiveness. He does these things with honesty, restraint and a moral precision both unsettling and rare. The result is as compelling as any thriller

BERNHARD SCHLINK was born in Germany in 1944. A professor emeritus of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, and Cardozo Law School, New York, he is the author of the internationally bestselling novels The Reader, which became an Oscar-winning film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and The Woman on the Stairs. His latest novel, Olga, was a no.1 international bestseller. He lives in Berlin and New York.