The Reader Sparknotes

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Recommended: Literary techniques

1. I read all of the 218 pages of The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. The book was originally published by Diogenes Verlag AG in Zurich, Switzerland but later published by Vintage Books in New York.
2. The book is realistic fiction because it takes place in a real place, with a very realistic story and characters. The story takes place in Germany after the Holocaust. The story is plausible with grounded characters
3. I finished the book in two days. 4. Michael Berg is the main character, narrator and protagonist of the book. Michael is a 15 year old adolescent born into a middle class family in West Germany. He was sick with hepatitis and while throwing up in the street meets a woman that is more than twice his age and has an affair with her. Michael was a young, ordinary teenager. He is easy to be around and has many friends due to his …show more content…

He got married to Gertrud, he had met her on a ski trip. They had a daughter but when Julia was five, Michael and Gertrud divorced. It had always been Hanna to him. When he held Gertrud, kissed her, or smelled her, it felt wrong. Gertrud felt wrong to him. Michael once again was haunted by Hanna and what she had done to him. She gave him the warmth and love his father denied him of, the same warmth he denied Julia when he had divorced Gertrud. Michael had become restless, barely getting any sleep. Late one night, Michael decided to read, but the only way he could do it was by reading out loud. And so he did, he read out loud and eventually, he started reading to Hanna again. He recorded himself reading books they had once enjoyed together in his teens. He sent her a tape player and the cassettes, numbered and labeled. He once again became attached to her, reading to her and sending her cassettes became a ritual. After a while, Hanna started writing to him, thanking him and commenting about the recent stories she had

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