The Reader characters

Appears from the start

A fifteen-year-old schoolboy in postwar West Germany who narrates the story from adulthood. After becoming ill in the street, he is helped home by an unfamiliar woman. When he recovers, he returns to thank her, beginning a relationship that he struggles to understand both at the time and in retrospect.

Appears from the start

A thirty-six-year-old tram conductor who helps Michael when he falls ill near her apartment. She is direct, physically self-possessed, and protective of her privacy. Michael is drawn to her authority and returns after his recovery to thank her.

First appears in chapter 2

Michael's reserved father, a philosophy professor who lost his university post during the Nazi period. He approaches family problems through careful thought and formality, which makes him seem emotionally distant to his children.

First appears in chapter 2

Michael's practical, attentive mother, who nurses him through hepatitis and manages the household while he is kept away from school. Her ordinary care contrasts with the secret life he begins after recovering.

First appears in chapter 13

A girl in Michael's school circle with whom he feels an easy companionship. As he begins spending more time with classmates, Sophie represents the open social life that exists alongside his concealed relationship with Hanna.

First appears in chapter 18

The professor who leads Michael's law-school seminar on a current war-crimes prosecution. He encourages the students to attend the proceedings and to confront how law can judge crimes committed under a former legal order.

First appears in chapter 21

The presiding judge at the trial Michael attends with his seminar. He questions the former concentration-camp guards about a forced evacuation and a church fire in which prisoners died, pressing them to account for both individual decisions and a shared report.

Also known as The daughter

First appears in chapter 24

A Jewish survivor of a camp evacuation and church fire whose written account is central evidence at the guards' trial. She appears in court with her mother and describes what happened to the prisoners under guard.

First appears in chapter 35

A fellow law student whom Michael later marries. Their marriage produces a daughter, Julia, but Michael's emotional reserve and his unspoken comparison of later relationships with Hanna contribute to its failure.

First appears in chapter 35

Michael and Gertrud's young daughter. Michael remains devoted to her after the marriage ends and is troubled by the pain that the separation causes her.

Also known as The prison governor

First appears in chapter 43

The official responsible for the prison where Hanna is serving her sentence. As Hanna's release approaches, she contacts Michael because he is Hanna's only known connection outside and asks him to arrange housing and work.