OLGA couldn’t have been fictionalized character. It’s a novel but - I need to look some things up. Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins Told in three distinct parts, brilliantly shifting from different points of view and narrative formats, Bernhard Schlink’s magnificent novel is a rich, full portrait of a singular woman and her world. Though Olga exists in the shadows of others, she pursues life to the fullest and her magnetic presence shines-revealing a woman complex, fascinating, and unforgettable. Unfolding across decades-from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century-and across continents-from Germany to Africa and the Arctic, from the Baltic Sea to the German south-west-Olga is an epic romance, and a wrenching tale of a woman’s devotion to a restless man in an age of constant change. Her love for Herbert goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, but even when they are separated, it endures. While Herbert indulges his thirst for exploration and adventure, Olga is limited by her gender and circumstance.
When Olga falls in love with her neighbor, Herbert, the son of a local aristocrat, her life is irremediably changed. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against ingrained chauvinism to find her place in a world run by lesser men. 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.A sweeping novel of love and passion from author of the international bestseller The Reader about a woman out of step with her time, whose life is witness to some of the most tumultuous events of modern age.Ībandoned by her parents, young Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village in the early years of the twentieth century. 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. ‘A poignant portrait of a woman out of step with her time’ Observer ‘A cleverly-constructed tale of cross-class romance’ Mail on Sunday ‘Brilliant… A tale of love and loss in 20th century Germany’ Evening Standard ‘Bernhard Schlink speaks straight to the heart’ New York Times
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