very readable... The Odyssey is the motif for the novel, a motif Schlink plays with enormous virutosity... Schlink has put together a clever package and skilfully guides the reader through modern German history. -- TIBOR FISCHER SUNDAY TELEGRAPH an engaging writer... a brave, if flawed, attempt at confronting Germany's stained past and uncertain identity. DAILY TELEGRAPH Homecoming is the long-awaited follow-up to Bernhard Schlink's massively successful novel, The Reader. Like his previous work, it is concerned with the way in which modern Germans make sense of their country's turbulent past, and suggests how understanding that past can be recovered through the study of commonly overlooked texts and documents. FINANCIAL TIMES a many-layered tale that draws on The Odyssey for its framework... a fine but elusive novel. -- JOANNA BRISCOE THE GUARDIAN it is precisely with his nuanced portraits of minor characters, effectively rendered in Michael Henry Heim's solid English translation, that Schlink truly succeeds. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Schlink is an accomplished and intelligent writer whose literary prose reads as well as well as the crime thrillers of which he is an acknowledged master.' EVENING STANDARD There are striking similarities between this new offering by Bernhard Schlink and his international breakthrough novel, The Reader... another quietly engrossing and ambitious tale... intellectually challenging, but pacily written... I know of no other writer who engages with the struggle between the individual and the political world as deftly - and poetically - as Bernhard Schlink. THE HERALD its strength rests in its ability to provoke... questions. -- ALLAN MASSIE THE SCOTSMAN 'Once again, Schlink has written a novel of great density and power' LITERARY REVIEW Anyone with an ear for fiction and an eye for evil should read it. PROSPECT elegant translation faultlessly conveys the spell of Schlink's art, in both its severe and its gentle climaxes. INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE 'a superbly written book that never allows itself to sink under the weight of its own big ideas... an invigorating read.' METRO