The Granddaughter, Bernhard Schlink
The Granddaughter, Bernhard Schlink
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

The Granddaughter
A Novel

Author: Bernhard Schlink

Narrator: Richard Burnip, Sarah Moule

Unabridged: 10 hr 15 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/07/2025


Synopsis

“Compelling . . . unfailingly interesting, building suspense as readers wonder what will happen” —Booklist (starred review)“[A] powerful story of loss and the desire to move forward.” —Publishers WeeklyFrom the bestselling author of The Reader, a striking exploration of the past, told through the story of a German bookseller’s attempt to connect with his radicalized granddaughter.It is only after the sudden death of his wife, Birgit, that Kaspar discovers the price she paid years earlier when she fled East Germany to join him: she had to abandon her baby. Shattered by grief, yet animated by a new hope, Kaspar closes up his bookshop in present day Berlin and sets off to find her lost child in the east.His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, intent on reclaiming and settling ancestral lands to the East. Among them, Kaspar encounters Svenja, a woman whose eyes, hair, and even voice remind him of Birgit. Beside her is a red-haired, slouching, fifteen-year-old girl. His granddaughter? Their worlds could not be more different— an ideological gulf of mistrust yawns between them— but he is determined to accept her as his own.More than twenty-five years after The Reader, Bernhard Schlink once again offers a masterfully gripping novel that powerfully probes the past’s role in contemporary life, transporting us from the divided Germany of the 1960s to modern day Australia, and asking what unites or separates us.Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins

About Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink was born in Germany in 1944. A professor emeritus of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, and Cardozo School of Law, New York, he is the author of The Reader, which became a multimillion-copy international bestseller and an Oscar–winning film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and The Woman on the Stairs. He lives in Berlin and New York.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on February 02, 2025

A Masterpiece The Granddaughter is truly stunning and couldn’t be more timely. When Kaspar’s wife, Birgit, dies, he discovers that she left behind an infant when she fled Communist Germany to start a new life with him. Now, Kaspar wants to connect with Birgit’s long-lost child, but family relationship......more

Goodreads review by Nadine on May 01, 2022

Ein starkes Stück deutscher Geschichte...literarisch, intensiv und sensibel....! Kaspar verliert seine Ehefrau. Die alkoholkranke Brigitte stirbt auf ungeklärte Weise. Als ihr Witwer den literarischen Nachlass sichtet, erkennt er, dass seine Frau nach ihrer Flucht aus der DDR ein Geheimnis hütetete........more

Goodreads review by Max on March 19, 2022

"Der Pianist goes to Berlin in 2022" In dieser linear und insgesamt wenig experimentell erzählten Geschichte findet der 71-jährige Kaspar nach dem Tod der Ehefrau ein Manuskript und erfährt von der Existenz einer Enkelin. Schlinks Sprache ist Kaspar, Buchhändler und feinsinniger Kulturmensch, angepas......more

Goodreads review by Hannah on March 02, 2025

This is a story without an ending. It's a story where you fill in the blanks of the endings, and there are multiple endings - one for each of the main characters: Kaspar the step-grandfather, Sigrun his step-granddaughter, Svenja (Kaspar's deceased wife's estranged daughter and Sigrun's mother), Sve......more

Goodreads review by Enrique on August 28, 2024

Me ha decepcionado bastante. Creo que Schlink tiene una estupenda disposición para tratar sobre un tema muy interesante en Alemania, la reunificacion tras la caída del muro, la huida de los extremismos políticos, etc, pero el problema es que se ve todo demasiado claro casi de inicio. Se deja muy poc......more