PI Gerhard Self is lured out of retirement by a seemingly straightforward assignment: to find the former sleeping partner at Welker & Welker, a prestigious private bank. But the case soon throws up many more questions than answers, and Self finds himself embroiled in a shady world of money-laundering, mafia and murder...
What secrets is the bank's history hiding? Why are the institution's enigmatic masters - Herr Welker and his steely Russian foster brother - trying to ensnare Self in their dangerous game, and just who is the stranger claiming to be Self's long-lost son?
BERNHARD SCHLINK was born in Germany in 1944. A professor emeritus of law at Humboldt University, Berlin, and Cardozo Law School, New York, he is the author of the internationally bestselling novels The Reader, which became an Oscar-winning film starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, and The Woman on the Stairs. His latest novel, Olga, was a no.1 international bestseller. He lives in Berlin and New York.