The Reader Study Guide

Michael Berg, the protagonist and narrator, is a 15-year-old boy living in West Germany during 1958. He has been feeling ill for a few days and, while walking home from school one October day, is overcome by nausea and vomits on the sidewalk. A woman sees him and takes him into her home where she cleans him up a little, and then she helps him wash the vomit from the sidewalk. Michael is overcome by feelings of helplessness and begins to cry. The woman comforts him and then walks him home, just a few blocks away. Michael is diagnosed with hepatitis and spends the next several weeks recovering. He is not allowed to return to school and, in fact, rarely leaves the house through this winter period of illness. (read more)