The Reader

Michael watches Hanna on a bench in jail. She has on a blue dress and holds a book. She realizes someone is looking at her and glances Michael’s way. When she spots him, her face becomes joyful. Michael sits beside her, and they hold hands. In detail, he recalls her many smells. They then talk. Hanna jokingly comments that Michael has grown up, but she calls him “kid” nonetheless. She says she reads but likes having Michael read to her more. Michael says he can still read to her. He’s proud she learned to read and write.

The pair discuss the trial. Hanna says she doesn’t think people can understand her; thus, they can’t accurately hold her accountable. Only the dead can comprehend her actions: In jail, the dead visit her every night.

Michael asks if she wants to leave jail quietly or with some celebration. Hanna wants to go quietly—no champagne or music.

Michael has to work on a lecture. As an older man, he can’t remember if he had a deadline or if he put pressure on himself to wrap it up. Either way, writing the lecture is difficult for Michael.

He gets IKEA furniture for Hanna’s apartment and talks to the Greek tailor. He buys her groceries and books and hangs up pictures. He then thinks about what Hanna said about the dead. He thinks she is letting herself off the hook and wonders why the living—including him—can’t understand her.

The day before Michael picks Hanna up, they speak on the phone. He asks if they should go home immediately or spend time in the woods. Hanna teases him about being a big planner. Michael gets irritated, and Hanna tells him not to be upset. Michael notices how young Hanna’s voice sounds.

The morning Hanna is supposed to go free, she dies by suicide. An emotional Michael arrives at the prison and speaks to the warden. The warden illustrates Hanna’s life as a prisoner; she liked the system, and the other women respected her and asked her to settle arguments. She successfully protested cuts in library funding and learned to read through Michael’s tapes. Whatever book Michael was reading, Hanna checked it out from the library and followed along. Once she learned how to read, she checked out numerous books about the Holocaust and Nazis, including canonized works by Hanna Arendt, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, and Elie Wiesel.

Hanna wanted Michael to write to her. In a letter, she asks Michael to give the 7,000 Deutschmarks she has to the daughter who survived the church fire.

The warden shows Michael Hanna’s cell. In the last few years, she stopped taking care of herself. She ate too much and didn’t bathe regularly. The warden wonders if Hanna couldn’t bear to return to the world. The warden expresses her frustration and shows Michael Hanna’s dead body.

In the fall, Michael has a meeting in Boston. He takes the train from Boston to New York and imagines living with Hanna in one of the country houses he sees out the window. In New York, he visits the daughter who survived the fire, who lives near Central Park. She serves tea, and they discuss Hanna. The daughter equates accepting the money with forgiveness. Michael says she can accept the money but not forgive.

The daughter laughs and realizes Michael liked Hanna. Michael tells her about their relationship. She calls Hanna cruel and presumes that Michael had an unhappy marriage and a child in boarding school. Michael says that countless people have such difficulties.

Hanna’s money is in a tea tin. The daughter once had a similar tin in which she kept opera tickets, a ring, and a hair from their dog. At the concentration camp, someone stole it—the tin had a lot of value.

The two return to Hanna’s money. Michael suggests donating it to a Jewish organization for illiteracy. The daughter jokes that illiteracy is not a big issue among Jewish people, but there’s probably an organization for it.

Ten years later, Michael writes his and Hanna’s story. He wants to write their narrative to separate himself from it, but then he realizes he’s writing it because it’s fading away. He wants to keep the memories sharp. He’s not sure if the story is happy or sad, but it’s true.

As for Hanna’s money, he donates it to the Jewish League Against Illiteracy in Hanna’s name. The organization sends him an automatic email thanking Hanna for her charitable contribution.