Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
BERNHARD SCHLINK was born in Germany in 1944. A professor emeritus 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. His latest novel, Olga, was a no.1 international bestseller. He lives in Berlin and New York.<b>From the author of <i>The Reader</i> comes a brilliant new novel about history and the nature of memory</b>... The story of Olga, translated here from German by Charlotte Collins, is the story of Germany's modern history. It is also a study of memory... You should read this novel if you appreciate the power of history. How do we remember each other? As individuals, or as parts of a larger whole? As they were, or as we wish they had been? The narration can be breakneck: decades pass in single sentences, while other paragraphs describe mere moments. This is the effect of memory; lives are condensed into a series of experiences and relationships. One line still sticks in my head, in a letter from a Norwegian bookseller. "History is not the past as it really was. It's the shape we give it".
Evening Standard
<b>A cleverly-constructed tale of cross-class romance</b>... Olga's story draws us into a present-day reckoning with Germany's past.
Mail on Sunday
A <b>poignant </b>portrait of a woman out of step with her time.
Observer
Bernhard Schlink, one of Germany's best-loved authors, is famous beyond its borders for the international bestseller <i>The Reader</i>. Like that excellent novel, his latest, <i>Olga</i>, is a searching examination of modern Germany and its scarred soul... <b>there's a sophisticated precision to his writing</b>, which is superbly translated by Charlotte Collins. And in Schlink's macro look at Germany's past, it's the small acts - of kindness and humility - that linger.
Sunday Telegraph, Novel of the Week
This is not a straightforward elegy - and throughout the book, death is not an absolute end. Instead, <b>Schlink frames the novel as a search for meaning, which dances in <i>Olga </i>between a multitude of timeframes and territories</b>. Throughout, Charlotte Collins's translation is careful and beautifully paced
Financial Times
A compelling tale of love and thwarted dreams... Schlink's lucid, no-frills prose lends his novel immediacy, and at times potency, and gives us a character to root for.
The Herald
One of Bernhard Schlink's secrets stems from <b>his art of telling stories by interweaving the standpoints of different generations in the very same life story.</b> <i>Olga </i>is another very well-done example of that.
Le Monde
In this <b>moving</b> book Bernhard Schlink resurrects the last traces of an unfulfilled love, with his <b>trademark, sophisticated nostalgia</b>.
Le Nouvel Observateur
Bernhard Schlink, whose <i>The Reader </i>we haven't forgotten, <b>impresses again with</b><b> <i>Olga</i></b>.
Lire
Everything points towards <b><i>Olga </i>being a new bestseller which can pick up where the international success of <i>The Reader</i> left off</b>. In other words: not to be missed!
SWR1
Schlink is a brilliant stylist; this bittersweet love affair is <b>deeply moving</b>.
Hamburger Abendblatt
The third part of the novel - letters Olga writes to Herbert after he's set out for the Arctic - is the most beautiful. Here, the camera finally zooms in and we learn of Olga's feelings, how she's<b> torn between hope and fear, love and anger at her lover, who has left her for a madcap expedition</b>.
Spiegel
<b>[Schlink] takes up motifs from his most famous work <i>The Reader</i></b>. Olga, who fights to be allowed to continue her education, seems like an alternative draft of the illiterate Hannah, whose lacking abilities led to her becoming a concentration camp guard during the Nazi era.
Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung
<i>Olga </i>is <b>captivating</b>. Bernhard Schlink tells the story in <b>lucid, serene language</b>. He is a master of this warm, pleasant tone, which has a hint of the old-fashioned to it.
Stern
Schlink tells a <b>gripping</b>, true-to-life story which startles you with its unforeseen twists, and <b>not only makes you think, but feel too</b>.
NDR Kultur
Schlink was and is an author for r<b>eaders who love intelligently told stories</b>. And they won't be disappointed by Olga.
Tages-Anzeiger, Zurich