The Reader: A novel (Vintage International)
Around the relationship between fifteen-year-old Michael and Hanna, love, secrecy, judgment, and guilt gather. The novel looks steadily at memory in postwar Germany.
Work Information
Love and secrecy become entwined with the memory of postwar Germany.
Known in Japanese through the Shincho Bunko edition of The Reader, the novel leaves long questions behind by crossing personal love with historical responsibility.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Vintage
- Published
- 1999-02-26
- Pages
- 224 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 12.9 x 1.32 x 20.12 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9780375707971
- ISBN-10
- 9780375707971
- Price
- 3163 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Genre Fiction/Historical
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Hailed for its coiled eroticism and the moral claims it makes upon the reader, this mesmerizing novel is a story of love and secrets, horror and compassion, unfolding against the haunted landscape of postwar Germany. "A formally beautiful, disturbing and finally morally devastating novel." — Los Angeles Times When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover—then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.
BERNHARD SCHLINK was born in Germany in 1944. A professor of law at the University of Berlin and a practicing judge, he is also the author of several prize-winning crime novels. He lives in Bonn and Berlin.
Reviews
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Perfect. Thanks !
Perfect. Thanks !
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内容を理解した上でCDを聞くのがリスニングの勉強には良い
CDは、男性の落ち着いた声で吹き込まれている。 原書を見ながら聞こうとすると、読むスピードが 速いので、目がついて行けない。 たまに原文通りに読んでいない箇所があるが、 もともとドイツ語で書かれたものを英語に翻訳して あるので、イギリス英語とアメリカ英語の違いによる ものと、ドイツ語をそのまま英語訳に取り入れた箇所を 英語に訳したものなので、たいしたことはないと言えるか。 CD4枚に吹き込まれているので、初心者としては、翻訳書 を頼りに、CD1枚分ずつ、原文を読んではCDを聞く、と いうような勉強方法が良いと思い、実践している。
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moving
ある法史学者が、世界大戦後のドイツで、歩んできた自分の人生を回顧して、ひとつの物語を書く。 少年時代の年上の女性との出逢い、性への目覚めと憧れ。彼女の求めに応じて本を朗読し、愛しあう日々。 彼女は突然少年の前から姿を消すが、彼はやがて法律を学び、研修の法廷で、アウシュビッツ裁判の被告の中に彼女の姿を見出す。 彼と彼女の人生が、概して淡々と綴られるが、その内容はあまりに重く、悲しく、胸をつかれる。 心と心のつながり、愛と罪の意識、人としての尊厳、ドイツの歴史の負の遺産との対峙、贖罪など、様々に考えさせられ、1ページ1ページを味わう。 読み終わって深い感動の余韻があり、秀逸。
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読みやすい英語。
英語勉強用の小説としてわかりやすい、読みやすい 200ページの分量も努力すればいける。 もとはドイツ語で書かれたものを英語翻訳しているので、英語の癖がなく、勉強用の小説として薦められる。TOEIC800点レベルの人が900点を目指すために読むという感じ。
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Life continues like Odissey...
Translater Ms. Miho Matsunaga has done an excellnt job into Japanese that drives me to open Kindle for some equivalence in English because of curiosiy about some words in kinship of languages occidenal. The author Schlink has given reader a very much profound imaginion as to how we really face what occurred in the past wihout having real experience so tragic, and so unontrollable in the wheel of the time... The Matsuaga's excellent transtion of The Reader helps one to think, reflect what has been embeded with a bit too much steretyped educaional point of views bout Holocaust. Worth readjng twice as the translater suggested in a Japanese paperback ediion.
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様々なテーマを扱ったスイスの名作
原著はドイツ語。映画”愛を読む人”(2008)の原作。英ガーディアン紙が選ぶ必読小説1000冊のうちの1冊。 1−3章で構成される。1章は15歳のマイケルと21歳の女性ハンナの出会いから別れまで。2章は裁判のシーン、3章はその後の話。 英語は児童書よりやや難しい程度だが、物語を読み解くのはやや難しく感じた。年齢差カップルの恋愛、正義についてなど著者のメッセージが感じ取れる作品。淡々と物語は進んでいくが、なぜそうなったのか行間を読む必要があるため、さっと読んだだけでは"特にクライマックスもなく終わった"となってしまうだろう。でもその物語の解釈が自分なりにできた時、この小説の面白さが感じられると思う。
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何度、読んでも、涙します
当初は和訳書を読み、洋書へ。 映画も観、いま、いちばんの、お気に入りの書です。 ぜひ、読んで号泣してください。
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ハンナの生き方が悲しい
少年と年上の女性ハンナとの恋、、でも彼女の行動には何故か不可解な部分が、、それは彼女が抱えている誰にも話せない秘密のせいなのです。 時が流れ思がけない彼女との再会、、。 でもそこにいたのは戦犯被告席のハンナ。 打ち明けられない彼女の秘密が彼女自身を逃れられない窮地に追い込んでいく衝撃的事実が徐々に明らかになります。 戦後世代で法律を学ぶ(もと)少年の心境は複雑です。 戦争によってもたらされた数知れない悲劇のうちのひとコマと考えることもできます。 ひたむきに生きようとする彼女が報われず絶望していく姿がとっても悲しいです。
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Arrived sooner than expected and in perfect condition. A very nice quality book. Thank you!
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Muy bueno. Tanto la película como la novela me gustaron mucho, pero la novela es mejor, es más profunda y serena
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Great bopk
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I remember seeing - and liking- The Reader on one of the OTT channels some years ago. And recently I came across the book. Having a weak memory, I knew I would have forgotten most of the story so I bought it. I had indeed forgotten the story but it kept coming back like progressive deja vu as I turned the pages. It's a wonderful book. The story of Hanna and Michael, a love story that's more carnal than emotional. But it's also about guilt. It is set in post-world war 2 Germany. The Holocaust is history but the active and passive participants are still around. Michael belongs to the post war generation. As he grapples with the issue of guilt vis a vis his unusual relationship with Hanna, he also contends with guilt in relationship to the holocaust. He ruminates, “our parents had failed to measure up during the Third Reich, or after it ended. How could those who had committed Nazi crimes or watched them happen or looked away while they were happening or tolerated the criminals among them after 1945 or even accepted them how could they have anything to say to their children? But on the other hand, the Nazi past was an issue even for children who couldn't accuse their parents of anything, or didn't want to." Because the protagonist grapples with such issues, the book is a lot slower than the movie, which I saw again on Amazon Prime after finishing the book. And it also goes a lot deeper. These are complex issues with unsatisfactory explanations and incomplete resolutions. The book makes you think but gives no answers. Isn't that true of so much in life?
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A friend (whose judgement I trust) recommended this to me. I was not disappointed. Ignoring for the moment the subject of the book I really liked the way the book is structured. Each chapter is short and to the point. Each of the three parts into which the book is divided has its own distinct character. But this clarity and neatness contrasts with the moral and emotional ambiguities that the main characters have to deal with. There is no need for me to repeat other reviewers who outline the themes and plot of the book. What I will say is that as soon as I had finished it I started to read it again from the beginning. And that's unusual for me. If you want to read about the horrors of Nazi Germany don't read this book. But if you want an understanding of how ordinary Germans found themselves taking part in extraordinary events and how they and the next generation tried to reconcile themselves to what happened then this is definitely worth a read. Or two. Or maybe three.
Related Literary Awards
- Park Kyong-ni Prize Edition 4 (2014) ・Winner