Homecoming

by Prof Bernhard Schlink (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.36

  From the author of The Reader, a mesmerising tale of discovery, identity and forgiveness

  When thirteen-year-old Peter discovers an old manuscript in his family home it instantly captivates him. The manuscript tells the compelling story of a German soldier's homecoming after escaping from a POW camp, but the document is incomplete.

  Years later, the adult Peter rediscovers the text and goes in search of the missing pages - but far from unearthing an ending, he finds himself at the beginning of a quest that leads him across Europe to New York City, to the mystery of his father's disappearance, a love story, and the question of his own identity...

  'A fine novel' Guardian
  'A brave attempt at confronting Germany's stained past and uncertain identity' Daily Telegraph
  'An accomplished and intelligent writer' Evening Standard
  'A novel of great density and power' Literary Review
  'An invigorating read' Metro

  A novel beloved by thousands of readers
  'Too good to finish' *****
  'Highly recommended' *****
  'A must read' *****
  'Brilliant' *****
  'Complex and profound' *****

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $6.15

  As a child Peter Debauer becomes fascinated by a story he discovers in a volume of fiction edited by his Swiss grandparents. He initially reads only part of the tale, which has been torn from the bound proofs, the blank back pages of which he uses for his homework. He becomes obsessed with this tale of a soldier who comes home to find' what? Debauer doesn't discover until years later, when he finds the missing pages of the story and manages to extrapolate the locale and put the clues together that he has gathered over the intervening years. The crux of the narrative is mystery - and the attempt to unveil identity, both of others and of oneself, and it is told through Peter's search not only for the ending of the this pulp-fiction homecoming story, but also for his search for its author, as he believes the story to be more truth than fiction. Peter knows very little about his father, but amongst all his reading as a child and latterly, as an editor himself, he is sent, for possible German translation and publication, a text written by a man, an esteemed American academic, who must be his father, but who writes and lives his life under an alias. Peter's mother has led him, and his grandparents, to believe Peter's father was dead, but why? To a large degree The Homecoming picks up, thematically, where The Reader left off, and Schlink's preoccupation with return, foreshadowed in his earlier protagonist's references to the Odyssey, is grounded here. Intertwined with this is the narrator's (read Odysseus) own story of discovery and loss; his quest is for his father, and his own identity. The novel is divided into two sections, with parts 1 to 4 forming the search for and discovery of who his father is, and part 5 their meeting, although 'closure' is not really an option, and Debauer never reveals his identity to his father.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2008

  $3.36

  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.

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $12.70

  From the author of The Reader, a mesmerising tale of discovery, identity and forgiveness

  When thirteen-year-old Peter discovers an old manuscript in his family home it instantly captivates him. The manuscript tells the compelling story of a German soldier's homecoming after escaping from a POW camp, but the document is incomplete.

  Years later, the adult Peter rediscovers the text and goes in search of the missing pages - but far from unearthing an ending, he finds himself at the beginning of a quest that leads him across Europe to New York City, to the mystery of his father's disappearance, a love story, and the question of his own identity...

  'A fine novel' Guardian
  'A brave attempt at confronting Germany's stained past and uncertain identity' Daily Telegraph
  'An accomplished and intelligent writer' Evening Standard
  'A novel of great density and power' Literary Review
  'An invigorating read' Metro

  A novel beloved by thousands of readers
  'Too good to finish' *****
  'Highly recommended' *****
  'A must read' *****
  'Brilliant' *****
  'Complex and profound' *****