The 30th anniversary edition of the classic international bestseller, with a new afterword from Bernhard Schlink. For 15-year-old Michael Berg, a chance meeting with an older woman leads to far more than he ever imagined. The woman in question is Hanna, and before long they embark on a passionate, clandestine love affair which leaves Michael both euphoric and confused.For Hanna is not all she seems. Years later, as a law student observing a trial in Germany, Michael is shocked to realise that the person in the dock is Hanna. The woman he had loved is a criminal.Much about her behaviour during the trial does not make sense. But then suddenly, and terribly, it does - Hanna is not only obliged to answer for a horrible crime, she is also desperately concealing an even deeper secret. The Reader is an international bestseller and a true modern classic, the essential Holocaust novel, examining the gap between Germany's pre- and post-war generations, between the guilty and the innocent, and between words and silence. Format: PaperbackPublished: 2025Publisher: Orion Publishing CoPages: 240Language: EnglishISBN 10: 139960323XISBN 13: 9781399603232