In the 1950s, Olga supports Ferdinand’s teen rebellion-he reads Brecht and wears American-style blue jeans-and she tells him stories about Herbert’s adventures. Olga continues teaching through both world wars, and in her 60s, at the end of WWII, she flees eastern Germany for Heidelberg, where she takes up work as a seamstress and befriends Ferdinand, the young son of the primary family for whom she works. Olga becomes a teacher and Herbert joins the army, serving in the Battle of Waterberg in 1904 Africa, and in 1914 he sets off to explore the Arctic. She becomes friends with Herbert Schroder, and by the time they’re in secondary school, she falls in love with him. Orphaned as a young girl, Olga Rinke is taken in reluctantly by her chilly paternal grandmother in Prussia. Schlink ( The Reader) returns with a nuanced portrait of an ordinary German woman who comes of age at the turn of the 20th century.
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