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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?

“If you didn’t, then your friends would have wanted to, with your help. You think I don’t remember? I remember everything, how you hated our lifestyle, your dream of throwing yourself into some grand cause. To be on the cutting edge of history – do you remember? And when I asked you what you would have done with this idea under Hitler or Stalin, you looked at me defiantly and had nothing to say. Then you thought the artist would be the thing, and then the revolution. Killing the man you’d abandoned anyway – that’s not too much to ask in the name of revolution!”

“No one wanted to kill you. No one thought you were that important.”

Gundlach leapt to his feet. He propped his hands on the table, leant down to Irene and barked at her. “And if your friends had thought I was important enough? What then? Would you have joined in? Would you have pulled the trigger?”

I am always slow to respond, but Schwind too did nothing, and just watched. Kari intervened. Wherever he had been, he had heard Gundlach getting angry and imagined that Irene was in danger. He had quietly slipped behind Gundlach. He took him by his upper arms and sat him back down in his chair. Gundlach was ashen, trembling and struggling for air – I don’t know what a heart attack looks like, but that is how I imagine one.

Irene stood up, went to Gundlach, took his hand, took his pulse and shook her head: nothing. She wrapped her arms around him.

19

No one wanted to speak. Schwind’s brow was furrowed as he watched Irene hold Gundlach in her arms. The sea washed through the pebbles, and a bird sang four notes, over and over.

“I would never have done anything to you. As crazy as life was, as crazy as I was…” Irene shook her head. “I’d gone to pieces, freed from all confines – and everything that had held me together. Life felt like a drug. Afterwards, it was like I was in withdrawal, with sleepless nights, my heart racing, breaking out into sweats. But that passed too, and then all that remained was this enormous emptiness: everything was far away, colours were dull, sounds were weak, I couldn’t feel anything any more. Except anger. I hadn’t known that I could get so angry, screaming, pounding tables with my fists, punching walls and then weeping, weeping from anger…”