The Dinner -- Herman Koch, Paperback

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The darkly suspenseful tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives--all over the course of one meal. Now a major motion picture.

"Chilling, nasty, smart, shocking, and unputdownable."--Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl

It's a summer's evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.

Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act--an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children, and as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK

"A European Gone Girl . . . A sly psychological thriller."--The Wall Street Journal

"Brilliantly engineered . . . The novel is designed to make you think twice, then thrice, not only about what goes on within its pages, but also the next time indignation rises up, pure and fiery, in your own heart."--Salon

"You'll eat it up, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."--Entertainment Weekly

"[Koch] has created a clever, dark confection . . . absorbing and highly readable."--New York Times Book Review

"Tongue-in-cheek page-turner."--The Washington Post

"[A] deliciously Mr. Ripley-esque drama."--O: The Oprah Magazine

Author: Herman Koch
Publisher: Hogarth Press
Published: 10/29/2013
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.66lbs
Size: 8.05h x 5.22w x 0.82d
ISBN: 9780385346856

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 11/24/2013 pg. 36

About the Author

HERMAN KOCH is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories. The Dinner, his sixth novel, has been published in twenty-five countries, and was the winner of the Publieksprijs Prize in 2009. He currently lives in Amsterdam.