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Back The Woman on the Stairs Save as PDF
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?

Evening came, and night fell. I made a bed for myself in the ruins of the old house and while I was making it I found a couple of coins and my house keys and the keys to my rental car. My documents, my credit cards, my money – they had all burned in the fire, and I did not care. I lay there and again heard the waves washing ashore, the rush as they came in, the rustle back through the pebbles. I had never slept so close to the beach, and heard the rush and rustle so clearly. Smoke still hung in the air, and again and again the wind rose up and brought the scent of burned wood, sometimes with a note of eucalyptus, or dusted me with ash. I woke up at first light, watched the sun rise red from the sea, turn orange, then yellow as it set out across the sky.

I went up the hillside, poked around in the charred remains of the house, kicked the burned-out shell of the Jeep, stood before the dead black tree trunks. Then I noticed that between them there was life, here a couple of green blades of grass, there a couple of green branches. Disaster had come crashing down on the forest in such a frenzy, and rushed through it with such wild speed, that it hadn’t been able to destroy everything small, only what was big. I climbed up to the top of the mountain. The hills ahead of me, the plain, the mountains in the distance – it all looked black. But up close there were traces of green everywhere. Traffic flowed along the motorway.

Then a boat steered into the cove, and I ran down the mountain. It was not Mark, but his father.

“You alone?”

“Irene is dead.”

He nodded, as if he had expected it. “How did it happen?”

“She was very ill and weak, and she often felt nauseous. When the fire got here, I carried her to the boat and we sailed out into the cove. I think she must have felt sick during the night, and vomited over the side of the boat, and fell into the water. I have no other way to explain it. I was asleep, and in the morning she was gone.”

“You should tell that to the Sheriff. She wasn’t here legally, but everyone knew that she was here, and there might be questions.” He looked around, looked at me and smiled. “You don’t have any luggage?”

I smiled back. “No.”

“Let’s go.”

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