Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary

Michael works particularly hard and passes his school classes. He continues his daily sexual relationship with Hanna. Michael tries to learn about Hanna's earlier life, but she is deliberately vague. She tells him she grew up in a German area in Rumania and moved to Berlin when she was sixteen. She worked at a factory for five years and then at age 21 joined the Germany army in 1943 at the height of World War II. After the war, she held odd jobs in various places and then worked for several years as a streetcar conductor. Hanna likes working on the streetcar because, she says, she likes wearing a uniform, being in constant motion, and seeing varied scenery. Michael, the narrator, then ponders the nature of happiness and fidelity from the distance of many years' time. He remembers being very happy in his...