The Dinner by Howard Koch

The Dinner by Herman Koch

NPR raves about The Dinner by Dutch author Howard Koch (Random House) and offers a peak on their site. The story centers on two married brothers who get together for a fancy dinner in Amsterdam with their wives. The purpose of the dinner is to discuss a crime committed by their sons. During the meal the parents reveal long hidden secrets about resentments, jealousy and long-buried anger and hatred. When it was published in the UK last August, The Economist called it the “best beach read of the summer.”

 

Summary:

An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives — all over the course of one meal.

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 polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse — the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. 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. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. 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.

 

Release Date: February 12, 2013

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