nomadreader

narrated by Campbell Scott translated by Carol Brown Janeway The backstory: The Reader  is one of the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die . The basics: Narrated by Michael, whom we meet as a fifteen-year-old, The Reader  is the story of his life and the relationship he develops with Hanna, a 36-year-old train director he meets at the beginning of the novel, as well as the reverberating impacts of that relationship on his life. My thoughts: I've known about The Reader  since its release in the United States almost twenty years ago, yet I never realized it was about the love affair of a teenage boy and an adult woman. It's about much more than that too, but the first part of the book surprised me. As I kept reading, I marveled at how many storyline Schlink weaves into this slim novel. I was particularly entertained with Michael. Campbell Scott's narration often had an urgency to it. He read the novel as though Michael was seeking to explain, or perhaps seeking som...