German guilt for the crimes of World War II against the backdrop of a fateful love
Fifteen-year-old Michael is helped in his troubles by Hanna, a generation older, and her selfless gesture leads to a passionate affair lasting several months. When the young man, now a law student, watches the trial to punish the female guards of a Nazi concentration camp, he is surprised to find his former love interest in the dock. Hanna defends herself rather clumsily in court, and Michael tries to find out what she kept from him about her past - but in the end, even with knowledge of an important circumstance, he does not speak in her favour.
What else will the hero be surprised by the erratic woman who liked it so much when he read to her after making love? The prose, told in the male form, reflects on the question of German guilt for the crimes of the Second World War against the background of fateful love: reveals both the different opinions of the perpetrators' tribes and the groping of their children and grandchildren.
The 2008 German-American co-production of the novel was made into a film by British director Stephen Daldry, starring Kate Winslet, David Cross and Ralph Fiennes.
"The figure of Hanna could be understood as a generalisation of the German dilemma between remembrance and repentance. But it would be wrong to consider the book an allegory about a certain nation. He brings (...) a distinctive reflection on whether we can live after we have become so grimly entangled with the great events of history."-Richard Bernstein, The New York Times Book Review
"Good literature makes the reader know himself. This story, told in a very matter-of-fact style, is very deeply imprinted in the mind." - Jaroslav Blažke, ceskaliteratura.cz.