by Prof Bernhard Schlink (Author)
As a child raised by his mother in post-war Germany, Peter Debauer becomes fascinated by a story he discovers in the proof pages of a novel edited by his grandparents. It is the tale of a German prisoner of war who escapes from a Russian camp and braves countless dangers to return home to a wife who believes him to be dead. But the novel is incomplete - Peter has inadvertently used the end pages of the proof for his homework - and he becomes obsessed by the question of what happened when the soldier and his wife met again. Years later, the adult Peter remembers the novel and embarks on a search for the missing pages that soon becomes a search for his own father, a German soldier whom he always believed was killed in the war. Peter's quest leads him into a love story of his own, and as he begins to unravel the mystery of his father's disappearance, he is forced to question his own identity. He learns that reality is sometimes a reflection of the expectations of others, and that truth and fiction often intertwine.
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: W&N
Published: 03 Jan 2008
ISBN 10: 0297844687
ISBN 13: 9780297844686
Book Overview: The Reader was an international bestseller, translated into 39 languages and winner of several international prizes. It has sold over 350,000 copies to date in the UK. Homecoming is the long-awaited and hugely anticipated new novel from Bernhard Schlink. It has already been a number one bestseller in France and Germany. The author will be in the UK on publication.