If the doctor allows it. He’s an old friend of Philipp’s and was a colleague of his in Mannheim before Philipp took over the department at the Speyerer Hof Clinic. The doctor shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders when I ask him about my condition and what I am to expect.

“What can I say, Herr Self? Your heart is worn out.”

Worn out. I’m quite aware that the operation wasn’t a success. Otherwise they would have told me. And I wouldn’t have been so tired. Sometimes I feel as if my tiredness is out to poison me.

I was happy when the taxi arrived.

Bernhard Schlink

Bernhard Schlink was born in Germany. He is the author of the internationally best selling novels The Reader and Homecoming, as well as the collection of short stories Flights of Love and four prizewinning crime novels-Self’s Punishment (with Walter Popp), The Gordian Loop, Self’s Deception, and Self’s Murder. He lives in Berlin and New York.