Hachette Livre

Hachette Reading Group Guides

Welcome to our Reading Group guide for The Reader by Bernhard Schlink. We invite you to consider and discuss the following questions when reading this book:

  1. Who do you think 'the reader' of the title is, or can it be applied to more than one character? At what point was it apparent to you that Hanna was illiterate? What is the importance of literacy in the book?
    2. How would you describe the tone and style of Bernhard Schlink's writing in part one of the book? How does it differ from the second and third parts? What effect does this difference achieve? The relationship between Hanna and Michael begins with an act of kindness on her part but we later learn of her involvement in the concentration camps. Does Hanna engage your sympathy at any point after you found out that she was a camp guard? On pages 131-132, Michael suggests reasons why Hanna became a guard and for her selection of girls to read to her. How convincing are his arguments? How can we explain why ordinary people commit atrocities without resorting to calling them monsters? Why does Michael find it so difficult to make his relationship with women work? How does the affair with Hanna affect him as an adolescent? On page 133, Michael says 'And if I was not guilty because one cannot be guilty of betraying a criminal, then I was guilty of loving one'. Michael did not know of Hanna's crime during their affair so why does he feel guilty? How do other characters of his generation appear to feel about the Holocaust? What about his father's generation? On page 146-147, Michael refers to the many images that have been produced of the camps, particularly in films. Is there a danger that the continued exposure of Holocaust images lessens their impact until they become frozen into cliches as Michael suggests? How do you feel about the images of war which are recorded in the newspapers and on television? Is Hanna a scapegoat just for her co-defendants or in a more general way? When she turns to the judge and asks him what he would have done in her position (page 110), what does his answer imply? Could the judge be considered as guilty as Hanna if he knew about the camps but did nothing? Why do you think Hanna does what she does at the end of the novel? How do you think learning to read might have changed her view of what she had done in the camps? Does the novel answer the question posed on page 102: 'What should our second generation have done, what should it do with the knowledge of the horrors of the extermination of the Jews?' What do you think the answer might be or is it an unanswerable question? Does the novel give any grounds for hopes of forgiveness, and if so what are they?

Current Reading Group Titles

  1. The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
  2. The Disappeared by Kim Echlin
  3. The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite by Beatrice Colin
  4. Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker
  5. The Other Hand by Chris Cleave
  6. Testimony by Anita Shreve
  7. Home by Marilynne Robinson
  8. The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti
  9. City of Thieves by David Benioff
  10. Remembering The Bones by Frances Itani
  11. The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton
  12. Lies by Enrique de Heriz
  13. Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaardner
  14. Sorrows of an American by Siri Hustvedt
  15. Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  16. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
  17. The Sisterhood by Emily Barr
  18. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
  19. The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie
  20. The Return by Victoria Hislop
  21. A Small Part of History by Peggy Elliott
  22. A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley
  23. Scapegallows by Carol Birch
  24. Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
  25. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
  26. Radiance by Shaena Lambert
  27. Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon
  28. The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell
  29. Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott
  30. The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
  31. Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
  32. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
  33. The Keep by Jennifer Egan
  34. The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther
  35. Pirate’s Daughter by Margaret Cezair-Thompson
  36. The Blood of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani
  37. April in Paris by Michael Wallner
  38. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday
  39. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
  40. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
  41. Red River by Lalita Tademy
  42. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
  43. Rosetta by Barbara Ewing
  44. The Mathematics of Love by Emma Darwin
  45. The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld
  46. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell