A war that will change the life of Olga and so many other Europeans.

By 1911, the reader knows that World War I is fast approaching. Through all these years Olga and Herbert correspond. But he is soon away again, this time to Argentina – then to Brazil, the Kola Peninsula, Siberia, and the Kamchatka Peninsula – before deciding that “Germany’s future lies in the Arctic”. When Herbert does return, he visits with Olga at a farm belonging to friends where Olga is now living and teaching. Olga in Europe reads his letters and waits for his return. The two are separated when Herbert volunteers for the colonial force in German South West Africa.

Olga becomes a teacher and Herbert a soldier. Olga is not considered a suitable wife, but the two are committed and decide on a life together, regardless of the opinion of others. By the time they are teenagers Olga and Herbert, already close friends, realize they are in love. Herbert and his sister Viktoria grow up with Olga, she is always a presence in their lives. Herbert is the son of the richest family in their town, a small Prussian village. We also meet Herbert, a boy who runs, all the time, everywhere. We meet Olga when she is a young child – a bright child, a solitary child “she likes to stand and look” says her mother. Beautifully written, and perfectly paced, it was a delight from beginning to end. This is the story of that love, of Olga's devotion to a restless man - told in thought, letters and in a fateful moment of great rebellion.The novel Olga by Bernhard Schlink is one of the best I have read this year. Theirs is a love against all odds, entwined with the twisting paths of German history, leading us from the late 19th to the early 21st century, from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west. When she falls in love with Herbert, a local aristocrat obsessed with the era's dreams of power, glory and greatness, her life is irremediably changed. Smart and precocious, she fights against the prejudices of the time to find her place in a world that sees her as second-best. Olga is an orphan raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village around the turn of the 20th century. 'Bernhard Schlink speaks straight to the heart' New York Times The life of one woman - Olga - from late 19th century Prussia to modern Germany.Ī novel of love, passion and History from beloved modern master Bernhard Schlink.

Olga bernhard schlink