The discussion of the book probably only lasted half and hour. If you don't have the 3 hours it takes to read it, here is The Reader, in brief.

Convalescent adolescent German male has brief torrid love affair with older woman. Woman leaves town suddenly with no explanation, next seen some years later on trial for Nazi war crimes. German male obsesses on trial, former lover and the guilt Germans feel about the war. Woman turns out to have personal secret for which she is willing to go to prison to protect. German male guesses secret and re-establishes contact...of a kind. I'm not going to reveal the secret here, in case you want to read it. But in general book club folks were surprised she was willing to go to prison to protect it.

Giving the character this secret rather detracted from the focus on why ordinary people did terrible things during the war, and in my view stopped a good book becoming a great book. Sarah didn't like the translation (too German), although she agreed with others that it might be meant to be like that (to get that authentic German feel). We generally agreed it was a very easy read that was worth reading but didn't live up to the hype on the cover.

Other topics discussed included how to handle lechy co-workers and randomly aggressive men, the Belgian emergency number (112), kittens, sexism, Alita's

forthcoming music night, the town hall as a good place to get dates and the fact that the next book club might be the last in Barbara and Deanna's flat, as the lease is up at the end of July and Barbara needs to find a new flat mate to stay.