The Granddaughter

De: Prof Bernhard Schlink, Charlotte Collins - translator

Narrado por: Richard Burnip, Sarah Moules

'Anyone who wants to understand contemporary Germany must read The Granddaughter now' Le Monde
'The great novel of German reunification' Le Figaro
'A masterpiece' Maurice Szafran
'A rewarding and wonderfully readable novel ... Schlink remains a perceptive chronicler of modern Germany' Guardian

May, 1964. At a youth festival in East Berlin, an unlikely young couple fall in love. In the bright spring days, anything seems possible for them - it is only many years later, after her death, that Kaspar discovers the price his wife paid to get to him in West Berlin.

Shattered by grief, Kaspar sets off to uncover Birgit's secrets in the East. His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, and to a young girl who accepts him as her grandfather. Their worlds could not be more different - but he is determined to fight for her.

From the author of the no.1 international bestseller The Reader, The Granddaughter is a gripping novel that transports us from the divided Germany of the 1960s to contemporary Australia, asking what might be found when it seems like all is lost.

Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins©2024 Prof Bernhard Schlink (P)2024 Orion Publishing Group Limited

Beautifully written and read.

This book is a gem. It explores deep feelings after the death of a spouse, in a beautiful way that resonated with me like nothing else has since my own partner died 20 years ago. The deep search of discovery, of reading and looking more deeply into the loved one’s life, than when they were alive. The hypothetical self questioning. In this beautiful story the search into the words left by the other, leads to a stepchild that had never been mentioned and also a granddaughter. It explores the left and right of politics. And the ‘wrong’ of the far right, in a way which is sensitive to the trauma and indoctrination that allow it’s possibility. It is so very beautifully written and read that I listened to bits of it again, and did not want it to end.