Bernhard Schlink, The Reader Review

Overall Rating

"The Reader" - I couldn't put this book down, and when I'd finished it I wish I'd never read it. In the best possible way, though. It left me deeply disturbed, depressed even. It explores parts of our deepest emotions and beliefs that we rarely admit to, even to ourselves. Required reading for everyone over the age of, say, 18. Don't visit the unpeopled Auschwitz, read this instead because it puts real people in the appalling circumstances experienced by the Jews who ended their lives there. The routine of the showering, sex, reading gets a bit monotonous (but then I'm a pensioner and past all that........) Read the book first, then see the film. I'm looking forward to seeing how the writer and director have managed to adapt what is largely a steam-of-consciousness novel.