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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?

The wind felt weird. It came without clouds, and without rain; it had no right to show off, but it did. It did not blow on me, but around me and through me and let me know how frail I was, as it let the house feel how fragile it was. Then things became even weirder. On the balcony someone was squatting, and turned their face towards me. A youth with dark skin and short hair, a broad nose and wide mouth, his feet on the ground, knees bent, his bottom hovering above the ground. I would tip over backwards, I thought, if I were to squat like that. His eyes must be deep-set, I thought, since I couldn’t see the whites. But I saw that he had fixed me in an unmoving, inscrutable gaze.

Should I wake Irene? If the boy planned to rob us, alone or with others, or to set the house on fire – it didn’t fit with his calm posture or the bright moon or the roar of the wind. The weird feeling had come over me not because I was afraid. It was because I didn’t understand what everything here meant – the boy, the wind, what Irene had said, what kept me here.

5

When I awoke, the sky was still pale. I heard a loud rustling, went to the window and saw a flock of blackbirds circling above the trees, close and loud, then distant and soft, and when the flock was distant and soft I heard the other birds, which sang the same three notes over and over again, or repeated the same short caw, or chirped the same trembling staccato. I imagined their bills desperately held open, until the flock surged back and drowned them out.

A pair of overalls had appeared on the chair, in the same way the pyjamas had appeared on the bed the previous day. I heard Irene descend the stairs slowly, then start working in the kitchen. I got dressed.

Over coffee, Irene explained that her Jeep had a flat tyre and the crank on the jack was broken. I needed to lift the Jeep so she could push a stone underneath and change the tyre.

“They told me no roads lead here.”

“When they made the area a nature reserve the roads were abandoned. Where they joined the road network, they were blocked off. But the old tracks are enough for a Jeep, and you can drive around the barriers. We insiders know how to get out, the people out there, luckily, don’t know how to get in.”

“We?”

“There are still two farmsteads. That’s where I need to go later.”