Bernhard Schlink
1 book analyzed
Biography
Bernhard Schlink (born 1944) is a German law professor and judge who served on the constitutional court of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was born during the war but grew up entirely in the postwar period — the quintessential 'second generation' German, raised by parents and teachers who had lived through and participated in the Nazi era. His legal career gave him intimate knowledge of how Germany's judicial system processed (and failed to process) war crimes. The Reader, originally published in German as Der Vorleser, became the first German-language novel to reach number one on the New York Times bestseller list. Schlink has said he wrote the novel partly to explore the impossible position of his generation — loving parents who might have been complicit, inheriting a culture built on unspeakable foundations.