A love affair between a teenage boy and an older woman is at the heart of this story about the post-WWII generation in Germany grappling with the horrors of the Holocaust.

In his new novel, “The Granddaughter,” Bernhard Schlink sets out to explicate these lingering antagonisms. And who better? Schlink’s 1995 bestseller, “The Reader” — adapted into a ...

THE READER opens in post-war Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her.