eBook Homecoming ePub

by Bernhard Schlink

Author: Bernhard Schlink
Language: English
ISBN: 0297844687
ISBN13: 978-0297844686
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; First Edition edition (2008)
Pages: 272
Category: Contemporary
Subcategory: Literature
Rating: 4.9
Votes: 658
Formats: txt lrf doc lrf
ePub file: 1279 kb
Fb2 file: 1177 kb

Download ePub Download Fb2

The gravel would crunch underfoot, and by the time Grandfather and I had reached the entrance Grandmother would have heard us coming and opened the door

The gravel would crunch underfoot, and by the time Grandfather and I had reached the entrance Grandmother would have heard us coming and opened the door. The crunch of the gravel, the buzz of the bees, the scratch of the hoe or rake in the garden-since those summers at my grandparents' these have been summer sounds; the bitter scent of the sundrenched boxwood, the rank odor of the compost, summer smells; and the stillness of the early afternoon, when no child calls, no dog barks, no wind blows

This was a difficult time for Germany, but also for other nations whose troops were returning home after the devastation of war.

Homecoming is a tale of fathers and sons, men and women, war and peace.

The author of ‘The Reader’ returns to a well-known theme: age entranced by youthful beauty. The author of ‘The Reader’ returns to a well-known theme: age entranced by youthful beauty. Homecoming is a tale of fathers and sons, men and women, war and peace. It reveals the humanity that survives the trauma of war and the ongoing possibility for redemption.

Like all his books, it was a great read.

Only 4 left in stock (more on the way). Only 3 left in stock (more on the way). Like all his books, it was a great read.

The resulting literary thriller, The Reader, became a celebrated international bestseller

He is a former judge and teaches public law and legal philosophy at Humboldt University of Berlin and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Looking for More Great Reads? Discover Book Picks from the CEO of Penguin Random House US. Close.

A professor of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, and Cardozo Law School, New York, he is the author of the internationally bestselling novels THE READER, which became an Oscar-winning film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and THE WOMAN ON THE STAIRS.

He is best known for his novel The Reader which was first published in 1995 and became an international bestseller. His mother, Irmgard, had been a theology student of his father, whom she married in 1938.

Books by this Author. He studied law at West Berlin’s Free University, graduating in 1968. He served as a judge at the Constitutional Court of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia beginning in 1988, and became a professor for public law and the philosophy of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany in 1992, a position he held until his retirement in 2006

Book by BERNHARD SCHLINK

Arcanescar

At one level, an excellent description of how self interest and relativity intersect with ethical decision making and personal responsibility for outcomes. More practically, a well crafted story about a son in search of his father and how the father has influened (the son and the son's behavior; others). References to fascism, concept of evil, legal theory, Greek mythology, and Germany's reunification: all usefully incorporated. My goal was to read an excellent (translated) German novel. I am very glad I chose this one.

Quinthy

I found this novel by Bernhard Schlink, the author of "The Reader," to be both fascinating at points, slow at other points, and ultimately to have "punted" on the key element. Without spoiling the story, the central character, Peter, first appears as a child who travels each summer from his home in Germany to spend time with his paternal grandparents in Switzerland. He never knew his father who died in the war. The grandparents publish pulp fiction and provide him with ample scrap paper which contains pages from stories on one side. He is instructed to not read any of the story material. Ultimately, as an adult he does start to read some pages at random and becomes fascinated with the moral issues inherent in the fragments of one story. He becomes so fixated on tracking down the unknown author of this story that he devotes most of his activities as an adult to pursuing various leads. So, in part this is a detective story--the author is well known for several detective novels he has written, so this is his natural genre and he is quite good at it, for the suspense builds as the reader wonders if he will ever successfully put all the pieces together. It also develops a nice love story dimension, as well as raising the emotional issue as to whether our parents ever fully tell us the truth as to what occurred prior to our birth.

But the book is far richer than this plot outline. For one thing, Peter has been working on a dissertation in law for several years, although he is fallow at the present. He spends some time teaching in Berlin shortly after the wall falls, so Schlink can once again get into the bedeviling identity problems which still afflict German reunification. Peter's major clue comes from a book written by an American political science professor, which affords the opportunity for Schlink (himself a distinguished Humboldt University law professor and former high judge) to dip into some postmodernistic legal deconstruction analysis re morality and law. Not too much of this (see, e.g., pp. 179, 187, 218), but enough to lay out the juxtaposition of issues between the professor and Peter. Ultimately, he concludes the professor is the author of the story fragments that initiated his quest and spends a semester auditing his legal philosophy seminar at Columbia, without disclosing why he is doing so.

Two problems I think afflict the novel in its final quarter. First, an episode involving the seminar participants at a rustic retreat organized by the professor, is transparent, too long, and does not add enough to the story to justify its substantial length. More importantly, the reader waits through 260 pages for the ultimate confrontation between Peter and the professor when he can reveal who he is and what he believes, and we can find out if he is correct or not. It never comes! Despite how much I enjoyed the remainder of the novel, I felt a bit cheated by this development. Nonetheless, this is an extraordinary novel, quite gripping at points, and raising a number of important issues requiring the reader to reflect upon his own experiences and values. And that is the most you can ask a novel to provide you.

Dont_Wory

The problem, I'm finding, with Herr Schlink, is a tendency to be too analytical. I enjoy reading existentialist literature to a point ... but when introspective questions begin to dominate the text, I start having my own doubts ... about why I'm reading the book. Homecoming is a well written story, but much more so at the start than toward the end. I also enjoy open-ended endings and perhaps it was my own confrontational nature that left me wanting at the end of Homecoming; wanting the confrontation and/or wanting to slap the protagonist. Ultimately, it's what forces me to give this one a 4 rather than a 5 star rating.

Definitely worth Reading, though ... so READ, amici ... READ ...

It's so easy

It is classical in the sense that it uses Homer's ODYSSEY; it is modern in the sense that it is incorporates elements of deconstructionism. It is not an easy book to read, but the effort is worthwhile for the questions raised and the consciousness raising that it inspires.

Corgustari

I just reviewed "Summer Lies" the book of short stories also by Bernhard Schlink. Like all his books, it was a great read. I recommend all the books by Schlink that are available in English -- he's a terrific writer.

Broadcaster

The action takes place in different ages and locales, so that it is not always easy to realize where a particular scene fits in in the overall thrust of plot However, it comes together as the central mysterious character uses all the other characters in a staged milieu.,

Arryar

I bought this because I loved The Reader by Schlink. This one is a much slower read, but it is still a powerful, intriguing, and very interesting story within a story. The first 50 pages could be deleted, but stick with it as there are many twists and turns and a surprising ending.

easy read, 50's Britain