When he falls ill on his way home from school, fifteen-year-old Michael Berg is rescued by Hanna, a woman twice his age. In time she becomes his lover -- then she inexplicably disappears. When Michael next sees her, he is a young law student, and she is on trial for a hideous crime. As he watches her refuse to defend her innocence, Michael gradually realizes that Hanna may be guarding a secret she considers more shameful than murder.

"Moving, suggestive and ultimately hopeful.... [The Reader] leaps national boundaries and speaks straight to the heart."
    THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"Arresting, philosophically elegant, morally complex.... Mr. Schlink tells his story with marvelous directness and simplicity."
    THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Haunting.... What Schlink does best, what makes this novel most memorable, are the small moments of highly charged eroticism."
    FRANCINE PROSE, ELLE