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English
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
29 October 2024

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- After the death of his wife Birgit, German bookseller Kaspar learns that before he helped her defect from East Germany, she left behind a child. When he tracks down Birgit’s daughter, she’s living in a neo-Nazi community and has a 14-year-old daughter, Sigrun. By pretending there is an inheritance, Kaspar gets to spend time with Sigrun, who comes to think of him as her grandfather, but her indoctrination means a clash of philosophies that he tries hard to overcome... A quietly powerful and elegant novel. Lindy

'Anyone who wants to understand contemporary Germany must read The Granddaughter now' Le Monde

'The great novel of German reunification' Le Figaro

'A masterpiece' Maurice Szafran

May, 1964. At a youth festival in East Berlin, an unlikely young couple fall in love. In the bright spring days, anything seems possible for them - it is only many years later, after her death, that Kaspar discovers the price his wife paid to get to him in West Berlin.

Shattered by grief, Kaspar sets off to uncover Birgit's secrets in the East. His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, and to a young girl who accepts him as her grandfather. Their worlds could not be more different - but he is determined to fight for her.

From the author of the no.1 international bestseller The Reader, The Granddaughter is a gripping novel that transports us from the divided Germany of the 1960s to contemporary Australia, asking what might be found when it seems like all is lost.

Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
By:  
Translated by:  
Imprint:   Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 232mm,  Width: 154mm,  Spine: 26mm
Weight:   413g
ISBN:   9781399614863
ISBN 10:   139961486X
Pages:   336
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

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.

Reviews for The Granddaughter

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- After the death of his wife Birgit, German bookseller Kaspar learns that before he helped her defect from East Germany, she left behind a child. When he tracks down Birgit’s daughter, she’s living in a neo-Nazi community and has a 14-year-old daughter, Sigrun. By pretending there is an inheritance, Kaspar gets to spend time with Sigrun, who comes to think of him as her grandfather, but her indoctrination means a clash of philosophies that he tries hard to overcome... A quietly powerful and elegant novel. Lindy





A complex, poignant narrative that plays out in communist East Berlin in the 1960s and the neo-Nazi scene of the present day * Financial Times * Schlink, author of The Reader, serves up another tale of buried secrets in this decades spanning saga of a German bookseller confronted with his late wife's hushed-up heartache. When he learns that she was already pregnant when they met in 1960s Berlin - she from the east, he from the west - the discovery prompts a quest for the unknown child, as intimate marital drama morphs into the story of a divided nation. * Mail on Sunday * Highly topical in its focus on neo-Nazis in presentday Germany and the lingering divisions between East and West 34 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall . . . The Granddaughter asks many important questions, including one that feels very pertinent right now with the rise of far-right groups: ""Was society failing to provide young people with a positive experience of community?"" -- Johanna Thomas Corr * Sunday Times *


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