The Dinner

Herman Koch, (Translator) Sam Garrett

ISBN 10: 0385346859 / ISBN 13: 9780385346856

Published by Hogarth, 2013

About this Item

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. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.

Seller Inventory # 2382021

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Dinner
• Publisher: Hogarth
• Publication Date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385346859
• ISBN 13: 9780385346856
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • FICTION-GENERAL

About this title

Synopsis

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

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.