The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink

Posted by Ms K on January 27, 2025 in All | 1 Comment

Happy 2025 Readheads. Good news is I’ve already read two books this month so am feeling chuffed with myself. Bad news (for me) is the hefty pile of books read last year which are not yet reviewed. They taunt me on the daily, but I am committed to sorting out this disaster lickety split, so buckle up and be ready.

I am considering a 2024 wrap up post because there are lots of great books you need to read so I might do that and knock them off in one go. I think, I hope, Ms A is still talking to me because I am definitely in the bad blogger hall of fame right now but holy smokes, last year was bonkers! I know you know.

So, let’s chat about The Granddaughter by Bernhard Schlink but quick spoiler, I steadfastly remain his fan. It’s a goodie despite some of the challenging aspects of the story which take us to a divided Germany in the 60s through to a contemporary Germany today….and even to Australia at the end to spice it up.

Kasper leads us through a tale of his marriage which is beautifully written by Schlink. I have reviewed two others by him if you want to check them out The Woman on the Stairs by Bernhard Schlink and Olga by Bernhard Schlink. And of course there is The Reader.

Beginning in 1964, The Granddaughter is a story of love and extraordinary heartbreak. Add a strong dose of cultural despair, violence and anger in the mix too and you are starting to understand the ride you’ll be on. 

Kasper falls in love with Birgit at a youth festival and helps her escape from East to West Germany. They are an unlikely pair but when they are finally together, in the West, life is pretty good. Until it is not. What Kaspar does not know is that when he meets Birgit, she’s pregnant and before escaping, gives birth to a girl and hands her baby to a friend who promises to take it to the local church for adoption. Birgit reunites with Kasper and never breaths a word, despite being tormented quietly, slowly and destructively through her later life. She drinks. A lot. She does everything to escape the reality of her decision, all the while Kasper loves her, supports her and puts her to bed, night after night, when she has passed out from too much wine. 

And then she dies suddenly.

Shattered by grief, Kasper sets off to uncover Birgit’s story which he reads about in her emails and private notes, and which leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazi’s and to Birgit’s daughter. Most importantly, it leads him to a young girl, his granddaughter. Her combative parents are vehemently holding on to their ‘real Germany’, a world in which Hitler is peace loving and the Holocaust is fiction. Their worlds are the opposite, but Kasper is determined to do right by Birgit and his granddaughter, and he creates a pathway for her to join him for 5 weeks a year for holidays. Her parents want none of it but they do want the money Kasper promises them under the false claim it was an inheritance from Birgit. And so the granddaughter is shipped off to Kasper. He gently shares his love of music and of books, some of which his granddaughter loves, some she refutes believing Kasper is naive about the real truth of Germany. 

There is so much anger in this story and because of it, many emotions arise with every page. Politics aside, the emergence of right-wing sentiment across Europe and other nations, does make parts of this book particularly difficult and frightening to read. But worth it? Definitely.

And that is my two cents worth.

PS: Boy, it’s good to be back.