On the fringes of his legal career, Bernhard Schlink has crafted a novelistic work which gradually traces a complex fresco of the historical and sociological nodes of modern Germany. Between the lines there is also an obstinate reflection on the disappointing evolution of men in relation to women.
His latest book, The girl, confirms its importance. We follow a widowed bookseller who discovers that his partner, an East German who moved to the West during the Cold War, had a daughter who rebelled against her father, a senior communist official, then joined the extreme right after the reunification of Germany. This secret child now has a teenage daughter, whom the hero tries to re-educate.
The girl is a powerful echo of Schlink’s latest book, Olgawhich explored the links between Bismarckian Germany in the 19e century, Nazism and the Red Terrorism of the 1970s. One of Schlink’s early novels, the readerbrought to the screen with Kate Winslet, was a disturbing testimony to the banality of Nazi evil.
Initially, Bernhard Schlink made a name for himself with the detective series Gerhard Selb. This character of a good man, but for whom the woman is an impenetrable enigma, is at the heart of the plot in The girl And Olga. The author’s humility in the face of German demons and the social limits of certain men of his generation is touching.
The girl
Gallimard
337 pages