Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink (born 6 July 1944 in Bielefeld) is a German writer with a legal background. He became a judge at the Constitutional Court of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1988 and is a professor for public law and the philosophy of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany as of January 2006.

Career

His career as a writer began with several detective novels with a main character named Selb—a play on the German word for "self"— (the first, "Self's Punishment", co-written with Walter Popp being available in the UK). One of these, "Die gordische Schleife", won the Glauser Prize in 1989. In 1995 he published "The Reader" ("Der Vorleser"), a partly autobiographical novel about a teenager who has an affair with a woman in her thirties who suddenly vanishes but whom he meets again as a law student when visiting a trial about war crimes. The book became a bestseller both in Germany and the United States and was translated into 39 languages. It was the first German book to reach the number one position in the "New York Times" bestseller list. In 1997 it won the Hans Fallada Prize, an Italian literary award, and the Prix Laure Bataillon for works translated into French. In 1999 it was awarded the "WELT - Literaturpreis" of the newspaper "Die Welt". In 2000, Schlink published a collection of short fiction called "Flights of Love". A January 2008 literary tour, including an appearance in San Francisco for City Arts & Lectures, was cancelled due to Schlink's recovery from minor surgery.

Bibliography

Literary Works in German

* 1987 "Selbs Justiz" (Self's Punishment; with Walter Popp)
* 1988 "Die gordische Schleife" (The Gordian Knot), Zurich: Diogenes
* 1992 "Selbs Betrug", Zurich: Diogenes
* 1995 "Der Vorleser" (The Reader), Zurich: Diogenes
* 2000 "Liebesfluchten" (Flights of Love), Zurich: Diogenes
* 2001 "Selbs Mord", Zurich: Diogenes
* 2006 "Die Heimkehr"

Other Works in German

* 1976 "Abwägung im Verfassungsrecht", Berlin: Duncker und Humblot
* 1980 "Rechtlicher Wandel durch richterliche Entscheidung: Beitraege zu einer Entscheidungstheorie der richterlichen Innovation", co-edited with Jan Harenburg and Adalbert Podlech, Darmstadt: Toeche-Mittler
* 1982 "Die Amtshilfe: ein Beitrag zu einer Lehre von der Gewaltenteilung in der Verwaltung", Berlin : Duncker & Humblot
* 1985 "Grundrechte, Staatsrecht II", co-authored with Bodo Pieroth, Heidelberg: C.F. Müller
*2002 "Polizei- und Ordnungsrecht", co-authored with Bodo Pieroth and Michael Kniesel, Munich: Beck
*2005 "Vergewisserungen: über Politik, Recht, Schreiben und Glauben", Zurich: Diogenes

Titles in English

* 1997 "The Reader", translated by Carol Brown Janeway, New York: Pantheon Books
* 2001 "Flights of Love: Stories", translated by John E. Woods, New York: Pantheon Books
* 2005 "Self’s Punishment", Bernhard Schlink and Walter Popp, translated by Rebecca Morrison, New York: Vintage Books
* 2007 "Self’s Deception", translated by Peter Constantine, New York: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
* 2007 "Homecoming" translated by Michael Henry Heim, New York: Pantheon Books
* 2009 "Self's Murder", Weidenfeld & Nicolson, "to be released 13 March 2009"