A fifteen year old boy is drawn into an intense relationship with an older woman which will haunt him forever. For this is 1950s Germany and Hanna has a past which she, and ultimately he, cannot avoid. Their story is a metaphor for a post-war generation trying to confront and understand how quite ordinary people went along with and took part in the Holocaust. Not a comfortable read but one that lingers long in the mind.
(Jenny Baker - bwl 27 December 2004 ) |
