The Weekend

Jefferson Mays brings out the dynamics of a group of German ex-terrorists who reunite at a country estate. Though their voices are not individualized, their feelings are obvious as tensions surface, and old wounds are opened. Jorg has just been released from prison, and another guest may have betrayed him. Scenes stand out--a libidinous teenager tries to seduce Jorg, a man long thought dead succumbs in New York City on 9/11, one radical isn't "ex" at all. Schlink doesn't point moral fingers, and his neutrality is reinforced by Mays's neutral reading. The complicated plot is delivered at a pace listeners can follow as they hear the different points of view. A more serious, Germanic "Big Chill." J.B.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

July 5, 2010
Old friends cautiously reunite at an isolated German estate after one of them is released from prison in Schlink's (The Reader) meditative novel on the past's grip on the present and the possibility—or impossibility—of redemption. Convicted of quadruple murder and numerous acts of terrorism on behalf of the radical left, Jörg spent 24 years in prison before being unexpectedly pardoned. His sister, Christiane—whose obsessive concern for her brother's welfare has turned her into a borderline recluse—arranges a gathering to welcome Jörg back into society. Among those assembled are journalist Henner, whom Jörg believes betrayed him to the police; quiet Ilse, using the weekend to begin a novel about a common friend's alleged suicide; and Marko, a young revolutionary keen on convincing Jörg to use his newly earned freedom to speak out against the current government. Schlink avoids the easy route of condemnation and salvation, never lingering too long on Jörg's crimes—though the ties to the RAF aren't cloaked—and though the past is admirably handled (sketched in, but not overbearing), the book's real strength is the finely wrought dynamics among the characters, whose relationships and histories are fraught with a powerful sense of tension and possibly untoward potential.