The Reader, Bernhard Schlink (Vintage Books, NY, 1998) ***

This book, a combination love story and mystery, unfolds in the context of postwar concerns in Germany over the treatment of Jews during the Nazi regime. It was selected by New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year, and by Los Angeles Times as a Book of the Year. Translated from the German, it was written by a German lawyer who later became a judge.

The book spans a postwar period of several decades and tells of the love affair between an adolescent boy, still in high school, with an older woman to whom he often reads aloud. She tells him nothing about herself except that she is a ticket-taker on the local trolley. Their secret affair continues until one day he shows up at her apartment and finds her gone, everything moved out. Years later, while attending a trial of Nazi war criminals as a law student, he sees her in the defendant chair. He eventually discovers that she was involved with the internment of Jews during World War II. What develops next is a poignant tale of love and forgiveness and secrets revealed. This is a short but beautifully written novel which reminds us that good and evil are often not as clear-cut as we suppose.