As a matter of fact, this book is not about romance. I was wrong. It's about how to face cruelty in history committed by his people. How post-war German generations reconcile with their previous generation that witnessed and acquiesced in the Jewish genocide.
Hanna helps sick Michael on the street, and they have a relationship when he visits her house to send gratitude. She asks him to read books while he indulges in physical desire. A scene leaves an imprint on Michael's mind: Hanna running her finger along the back of the books in Michael's father's study. Michael feels guilty when he is turning away his head from Hanna when he is with his friends. Then Hanna vanishes.
It is in the courtroom that Michael sees Hanna again. She is a defendant and he is a law school student. She is charged with a hideous crime. She and other guards didn't help Jewish people in the concentration camp get out of a church on fire. However, what is strange is that she refuses to defend herself.
Michael later realizes that Hanna is illiterate. She chooses to become a criminal rather than to reveal her illiteracy. This is the part I couldn't understand most. Hanna is sentenced to serve long time in prison, and Michael sends her cassette tapes in which he records books with his voice.
Who is the READER in this story? Michael or Hanna. I think it's Hanna. She listens, but she is the one who in the first place asks Michael to read certain books and expresses her opinion about the books.
Is it worth that Hanna is hiding she is an illiterate at the expense of her acquittal? Maybe the following part explains it. Imagine a trial and a defendant is gay, and could not have committed the crime because he is gay, but is ashamed of being gay. It isn't a question of whether the defendant should be ashamed of being gay.
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