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The Woman on the Stairs

Bernhard Schlink
Chapters (83)
  1. Cover
  2. Also by Bernhard Schlink
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. 16
  22. 17
  23. 18
  24. 19
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. 26
  32. Part Two
  33. 1
  34. 2
  35. 3
  36. 4
  37. 5
  38. 6
  39. 7
  40. 8
  41. 9
  42. 10
  43. 11
  44. 12
  45. 13
  46. 14
  47. 15
  48. 16
  49. 17
  50. 18
  51. 19
  52. 20
  53. 21
  54. 22
  55. 23
  56. 24
  57. 25
  58. Part Three
  59. 1
  60. 2
  61. 3
  62. 4
  63. 5
  64. 6
  65. 7
  66. 8
  67. 9
  68. 10
  69. 11
  70. 12
  71. 13
  72. 14
  73. 15
  74. 16
  75. 17
  76. 18
  77. 19
  78. 20
  79. 21
  80. 22
  81. Author’s Note
  82. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  83. What’s next onyour reading list?

Cover

Book cover image

Also by Bernhard Schlink

The Reader

Flights of Love

Homecoming

The Weekend

Summer Lies

Self’s Punishment (with Walter Popp)

Self’s Deception

Self’s Murder

The Gordian Knot

Title Page

The Woman on the Stairs Bernhard Schlink Translated from the German by Joyce Hackett and Bradley Schmidt Pantheon Books The Woman on the Stairs Bernhard Schlink Translated from the German by Joyce Hackett and Bradley Schmidt Pantheon Books

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Translation copyright © 2016 by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, and distributed in Canada by Random House of Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Germany as Die Frau auf der Treppe by Diogenes Verlag AG, Zurich, in 2014. Copyright © 2014 by Diogenes Verlag AG. This translation originally published in hardcover by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd., London, in 2016.

Pantheon Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Schlink, Bernhard, author. Hackett, Joyce, translator. Schmidt, Bradley, translator.

Title: The woman on the stairs / Bernhard Schlink ; translated from the German by Joyce Hackett and Bradley Schmidt.

Other titles: Frau auf der Treppe. English.

Description: First American edition. New York : Pantheon Books, 2017.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016042408 (print). LCCN 2016047399 (ebook). ISBN 9781101870716 (hardcover). ISBN 9781101870723 (ebook).

Subjects: LCSH: Triangles (Interpersonal relations)—Fiction. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. BISAC: FICTION / Literary. FICTION / Mystery & Detective / General. FICTION / Cultural Heritage. GSAFD: Suspense fiction.

Classification: LCC PT2680.L54 F7313 2017 (print). LCC PT2680.L54 (ebook). DDC 833/.914—dc23.

LC record available at lccn.loc.gov/​2016042408

Ebook ISBN 9781101870723

Cover image by Purcell Pictures, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo

Cover design by Oliver Munday

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Part One

1

Perhaps you will see the painting one day. Long lost, suddenly resurfaced – all the museums will want to display it. By now, Karl Schwind is one of the most famous and expensive painters in the world. When he turned seventy, I saw him in every paper, on every channel. Still, I had to look a long time before I recognized the young man in the old.

The painting, I recognized immediately. I walked into the last court of the Art Gallery and there it hung. It moved me as it had when I entered the parlour of Gundlach’s villa, and saw it for the first time.

A woman descends a staircase. The right foot lands on the lower tread, the left grazes the upper, but is on the verge of its next step. The woman is naked, her body pale; her hair is blonde, above and below; the crown of her head gleams with light. Nude, pale and blonde – against a gray-green backdrop of blurred stairs and walls, the woman moves lightly, as if floating, towards the viewer. And yet her long legs, ample hips, and full breasts give her a sensual weight.