What don’t you know about your partner?
A German novelist, Bernhard Schlink, imagines a marriage’s, and his country’s, secrets
BERNHARD SCHLINK is probably the world’s most famous living German novelist. His book “The Reader” (1995), a harrowing tale of a teenage boy’s affair with an older woman he later learns had been a concentration-camp guard, sold millions of copies and spawned a Hollywood adaptation with an Academy Award-winning performance from Kate Winslet. Now Mr Schlink has turned his attention to a different German catastrophe in the 20th century: its post-war cleavage and the shadow it continues to cast over the country, 34 years after its halves were reunified.
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This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Wall of worry”
Culture October 19th 2024
From the October 19th 2024 edition
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