BOOK CLUB
Discovering German Literature in Translation by Michaela A .
This month , we look at two blockbuster books from the Deutsche Welle list of “ 100 German Must-Reads ,” both of which became successful English films worldwide and were released within two years of each other .
The Reader , by Bernhard Schlink , was first published in
1995 and falls under the genre of Vergangenheitsbewältigung : the national struggle to come to terms with the problems of the past , or what we might simply call Holocaust literature . Michael , a young student , meets Hanna , a train conductor twice his age , by chance one day and they quickly fall into an intense , passionate relationship until one day she disappears . It is only years later , when he sees her again , that he starts to realize the secrets she kept from him , including her work as a concentration camp guard . The Reader explores the question of how the post-war generation should face the crimes of the increasingly older generation who played a part in the atrocities . It was also met with criticism , with some not liking the sympathy that Hanna ’ s character is granted . It is an engrossing , page-turning read — emotional , erotic , thoughtful — and Schlink has used Michael ’ s character well to walk us through his own personal Vergangenheitsbewältigung .