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The Dinner

3.31 of 5 stars 3.31 · rating details · 13,075 ratings · 2,557 reviews

Paul Lohman and his wife Claire are going out to dinner with Paul's brother Serge, a charismatic and ambitious politician, and his wife Babette. Paul knows the evening will not be fun. The restaurant will be over-priced and pretentious, the head waiter will bore on about the organically certified free-range this and artisan-fed that, and almost everything about Serge, espe...more

Paperback, 309 pages

Published July 25th 2012 by Text (first published 2009)

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Feb 28, 2013 karen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: distant-lands, sshh-family-secrets

so this is probably a safe bet for people who liked Gone Girl. in other words, not you, richard. but it is not nearly as twisty and satisfying as g.g., methinks.

it has the moral bankruptcy of Gone Girl, the shallow people, banal small talk and heavily-done descriptive elements of American Psycho, and the "we are here to talk about our delinquent kids but it isn't going to go well" scenario of The God of Carnage. and why yes, i have only seen the film adaptation, thank you for asking.

the whole t...more

99 likes · like · see review

Dec 24, 2012 Carol rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'm a huge fan of books that explore how far we'll go for those we love, particularly our children. When Hogarth Publishers agreed to send me the e-galley of The Dinner I was ecstatic. It's due to be published in the states in February 2013.

This is a book that begs eating metaphors so I'll try to spare you but it won't be easy.

The Dinner is laid out in courses, from aperitif to digestif and is excellently plotted. You learn early on that this dinner is not the typical happy family outing. Brot...more

33 likes · like · see review

Mar 13, 2013 Random House of Canada rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ainsley-s-reviews, lindsey-s-reviews

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book without spoiling it. It is the kind of book that is staying with me, though. I keep thinking about the characters and their choices. The way the author reveals key details slowly and not chronologically really made the story have a huge impact. If you read this book, you're going to want to talk about it!
~Ainsley

P.S. See a spoiler-free gif review here.

___________________________________________

I'm going to have to echo everything Ainsley's said abou...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Mark rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Hated this book! It felt contrived and stilted. I didn't like any of the characters. I couldn't identify with any of them. None of the dialogue was believable. The situation was farcical (why would you go to a super-expensive, elite restaurant to talk about such a private matter?). The whole book was about protecting the kids from their own actions - their was no sense of personal responsibility, no remorse, no soul searching. The narrator was a violent thug who just whined incessantly the whole...more

97 likes · like · see review

Apr 20, 2013 Dem rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Dinner by Herman is certainly a quirky and entertaining read and if you like dark, quirky and different then this one may be for you. I really enjoyed this novel, it certainly packs a punch.

Take two families, a dinner setting and a couple dangerously delinquent sons and a very disturbing act of criminality that has shocked the nation and you have yourself the plot of a very well written novel.

A word of warning! Not every reader is going to love this one...............so if you dislike storie...more

10 likes · like · see review

May 15, 2013 RandomAnthony rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I understand comparing a book to Gone Girl will push sales, so yay for that comparison plastered on every The Dinner reference. But seriously, motherfuckers, this novel is more like Flynn's Sharp Objects and, in my eyes, better than Gone Girl. So let's stop talking about Gone Girl, even though I liked that book, because, you know, there are other books in the goddamn universe and I'm trying to review one as we speak.

The Dinner's main character is an angry, reflective guy out at a restaurant with...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Lou rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-thriller

The scene is set, a dinner for four in a Dutch restaurant. The characters are two brothers with their wives.
Many things shall become unraveled in this meeting of sorts a satirical meeting of parents on a dilemma a gruesome discovery that could almost put you off your desert or their desert, will they eat their desert? Well you'll have to find out.
If some dark truths come to light one brothers political campaign may be at risk, decisions and a four course meal to stomach leaves no room for playti...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Noeleen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-favourites

The Wall Street Journal has tagged The Dinner as ‘the European Gone Girl’. I beg to differ and I think that this book should more appropriately be tagged ‘the European Defending Jacob'...but hey who am I to question The Wall Street Journal! The Dinner tells the story of two families, the parents of which meet each other over dinner one evening in an exclusive restaurant in Amsterdam. At the heart of the story is a horrific crime which both sons within each family hold equal responsibility.

Koch h...more The Wall Street Journal has tagged The Dinner as ‘the European Gone Girl’. I beg to differ and I think that this book should more appropriately be tagged ‘the European Defending Jacob'...but hey who am I to question The Wall Street Journal! The Dinner tells the story of two families, the parents of which meet each other over dinner one evening in an exclusive restaurant in Amsterdam. At the heart of the story is a horrific crime which both sons within each family hold equal responsibility.

Koch has managed to achieve an attention-grabbing, gripping and intriguing read in this book. It is very well written and translated. I was truly hooked from page one right up until the end. The setting, i.e. the restaurant, works exceptionally well...a setting which we think and imagine will provide intimacy and an appropriate platform for discussion. The setting is an extremely important aspect in this book, because as each course arrives for our diners, our own appetite, hunger and curiosity increase for the unfolding story. Consequently, as each course is served, we are faced with the interruption of the waiter on numerous occasions, explaining the dishes of choice to our four diners. Paul, the narrator of the story becomes increasingly impatient with these interruptions and we the reader do too, not because they are not highly complimentary and a necessary side dish to the story, they are, but they serve to prolong our suspense and anticipation and allow an extremely subtle tension to build . As a result, rather than receive the story in one great dish, we are served it in nibbles and sips, finger-food as such. For me, this was one of the best aspects of the book. This structure really worked superbly. There are no likeable characters in the book and our narrator is totally unreliable, two of my favourite features of a good read. The discussions at the dinner table incorporate a number of themes for debate both for our diners and for us, the reader, and are not only limited to the central crime. The plot in the story really brings to mind certain questions for the reader, how far would we go to protect our children, what actions and decisions would we take or what actions and decisions would we not take, in essence, how far would we go, as parents, to protect the ones we love and cherish? This is indeed dark and gritty but a wonderful and highly entertaining read.

Highly recommended if you like contemporary fiction, most especially books with unreliable narrators. This book is also an ideal choice for Book Clubs, providing most entertaining and interesting discussion and opinion topics. One of my favourite reads of 2013 so far!(less)

21 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 Judy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Judy by: Dem

Shelves: 2013-pub-date, audiobook-e-book, fiction, netherlands, 2013-reads

My biggest question after reading this captivating story, is why did so many readers only rate this 3 stars? I even read several reviews to try to figure this out. However, I couldn't find a single reason, so will chalk it up as one of those books that make people react strongly. Even though there are a lot of 3 star reviews, the reviewers have strong feelings about the book, strong "meh" feelings.
Me? I really liked the book, but will qualify that with saying the narrator of the audiobook had a...more

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 17, 2013 Delee rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, literary-fiction, ebooks, reviewed

I really detested every character in this book (with the exception of Serge, him I just disliked). I hated the ending with every fiber of my being. I found myself wanting to put it down numerous times, and I felt physically ill when I realized where the ending was going....and yet I didn't hate the book itself. I actually went back and forth about whether to give it three stars or four stars for quite awhile. If it was possible I would give it 3 1/2 stars, so lets just say I did.

I am going to l...more

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Nov 20, 2012 Madame X rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What initially interested me in Herman Koch's The Dinner was this review in The Economist, which labels the book a "beach read" and later describes the experience of reading it with a mealy metaphor: "The reader does not rise from his table happy and replete so much as stand up suddenly, pale and reeling." I thought it was an odd combination - breezy yet repellant? Leisurely-paced but a page turner? But both are true -- I felt fairly queasy when I was done.

Here's the basic premise of The Dinner....more What initially interested me in Herman Koch's The Dinner was this review in The Economist, which labels the book a "beach read" and later describes the experience of reading it with a mealy metaphor: "The reader does not rise from his table happy and replete so much as stand up suddenly, pale and reeling." I thought it was an odd combination - breezy yet repellant? Leisurely-paced but a page turner? But both are true -- I felt fairly queasy when I was done.

Here's the basic premise of The Dinner. Two couples meet at a fancy restaurant. Their children have cooperated in the commission of a senseless, horrible crime that's received a great deal of media attention. While the population at large hasn't been able to identify the perpetrators, these four -- the parents -- have. And this is the first time they've met to discuss what they all know.

The book is divided by the meal's courses, and the principals avoid even mentioning the elephant in the room until almost dessert. But it builds gradually, with the first half all buildup and the second half mostly payoff. The last third is relentlessly intense, and the contrast of the civilized, peaceful restaurant setting - so brilliantly described in the early sections -- is what gives the brutal, ugly subject matter its impact.

But The Dinner turned out not to be the book I had expected to read. Looking back, it's the book I should have expected. It's only in retrospect that I realize that Koch gave us the most obvious answer to the question: how did this tragedy come to pass? (view spoiler)

Even though I didn't expect many of the book's twists and turns, my main criticism of The Dinner is that in retrospect, too many of the big revelations feel...ordinary or stereotypical, I suppose. On the other hand, the book boils a lot of complicated things - politics, class, racism, nationalism - into an intimate family story, and I thought the ending was absolutely perfect. Just right, down to the last word.

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Dec 26, 2012 Diane S. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

First book that I have rated so highly even though I did not like any of the characters. This is a book of moral complexity narrated by an unreliable narrator, who at first seems to take the politeness and political correctness out of all conversations at dinner. He does this basically inside himself, not outside where any can hear but he is extremely skeptical of almost everything. From the beginning the reader knows this is not going to be a lighthearted dinner between siblings, the tension is...more

10 likes · like · see review

Feb 27, 2013 Jana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Dinner (English version for me)

Last month, the woman behind the counter at Lemuria Books in Jackson, Mississippi said that this book was the best of her recent pre-publication reads. After we talked about it a bit, I knew I wanted to read it hot off the press.

2/12/13: Cheers! Dinner begins...

2/24/13: Wow. Just finished. Now I'm reading review comparisons to Gone Girl. Hmmmm....maybe? In a claustrophobic, restaurant enclosed setting. There are similarities in the nasty people involved in bot...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Pretentious rot and Dutch version of Gone Girl only with sociopaths and food.
Unpalatable.
I know. That was too easy. And smug.
Sorry.

25 likes · like · see review

May 19, 2013 Kelsey Demers rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction

Here is an example of the avenue more authors need to explore in contemporary literature. Stop imitating, stop trying to write for the best seller list, for goodness sake please stop writing about lust driven beings, don't worry about whether your characters are likable, but rather create a real, believable and above all interesting story that gets people talking. This is what Herman Koch has attempted with his novel The Dinner and it is why I applaud him.

If you want a book with enjoyable charac...more Here is an example of the avenue more authors need to explore in contemporary literature. Stop imitating, stop trying to write for the best seller list, for goodness sake please stop writing about lust driven beings, don't worry about whether your characters are likable, but rather create a real, believable and above all interesting story that gets people talking. This is what Herman Koch has attempted with his novel The Dinner and it is why I applaud him.

If you want a book with enjoyable characters who you can cuddle up with in your chair as you flip your Kindle pages then please, don't add this book to your list. The Dinner is an interesting story that examines the extent that one can place blame for the crimes of another, a child, on their parents. To what extent are the parents to blame for the deeds of their children? And where is the line that is drawn for the lengths that they should go to protect them?

As I said, the characters in this novel are not likable. No, they are often confusing, disconcerting, and appalling. However, this does not stop them from being quite interesting. Told in the singular setting of a fancy dinner outing between two brothers and their wives, the story is narrated through the eyes of Paul Lohman, a character who begins as one who makes us chuckle, talking about the annoying show-acting of politicians and the uppity extravagance offered by a restaurant way too high on itself, yet as we come to know Paul more we see the unsavory and duplicitous nature that lives within, altering the perceptions of the world he lays out for us at the novels start.

I find this novel to be interesting in a number of ways but mostly in the way that it approaches and confronts our preconceived notions towards individuals in certain situations and the need to find the explanation, to make the excuse. It looks at mental illness without ever mentioning an illness itself. We know that Paul is "sick" and we can assume that his son has inherited this mysterious illness or disorder, but nothing is ever mentioned concretely. Do we change our view of the situation based on the illness? And then there are our preconceived ideas about what illness or disorder he must have. Nothing is ever offered to show preference to one or the next, yet the reader assigns (and perhaps reassigns) a disorder that, for them, fits the bill. What does that say of us and our perception of individuals with disorders?

This however was is where I find a fault in the book. Making Paul's unsettling characteristics the products of a biological imbalance, of whatever nature, take away from the shock of one having these thoughts, these impulses. We can explain them away, he has a disorder, and while it doesn't make it okay, it dulls the blow. To counter this however, I find that Koch's use of Paul's wife Claire expert. She is the true underrated star of the novel. Here we are met with an individual who, to the best of our knowledge, does not have a disorder and is making these decisions and her actions based on her own set of morality in the given situation. There is nothing that can be used to explain away Claire's willing involvement and participating in these events.

Yet for all of the good and intriguing aspects of Koch's novel, I find that, on the whole, it falls flat. While he places his reveals at appropriate times to keep you reading, like the dinner he describes in the novel itself, it is lacking substance to make it truly satisfying.
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Feb 23, 2013 Savvy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A "grab you by the knickers" novel...the narrator, however unreliable, has you from the start!
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Tolstoy aside, this family is a myriad of contradictory facades.

"Food doesn't matter much in novels. Years will pass in a person's life without a single description of a snack. Not a moment between adverbs for a taco. No wonder so many characters in contemporary fiction are glum: They're not hopeless; they're hungry.

Dutch au...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Diane Yannick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Two brothers and their wives meet for dinner in a posh restaurant in Amsterdam. During this dinner, they discuss trivialities trying to avoid talking about the crime committed by their sons.

I see this book referred to as a thriller and I would not categorize it this way. For me, it was a psychological study of how far parents are willing to go to protect their children. This is a topic that is universal in its ability to disturb. It is very easy to choose the ethical position UNTIL you love a c...more

Two brothers and their wives meet for dinner in a posh restaurant in Amsterdam. During this dinner, they discuss trivialities trying to avoid talking about the crime committed by their sons.

I see this book referred to as a thriller and I would not categorize it this way. For me, it was a psychological study of how far parents are willing to go to protect their children. This is a topic that is universal in its ability to disturb. It is very easy to choose the ethical position UNTIL you love a child who commits a crime.

It is also a commentary/satire on Dutch politics. Serge exemplifies the exalted political want to be. Many of the elitist mannerisms of the upper class were comical. The pretentious descriptions of the haute Dutch cuisine were great. "The lamb's-neck sweetbread has been marinated in Sardinian olive oil and is served with arugula. The sun-dried tomatoes come from Bulgaria. This is lamb's lettuce."

Once you accept that Paul is an unreliable narrator, you can just go along for the ride. He will peel away the layers of the story in whatever order and with whatever lapses he chooses. These lapses in the narrative are what allows the reader to pause and wonder. At the end, you still aren't sure that you picked up all of the important clues or that you've fully understood the lines between reality and mental illness. If loose ends drive you nuts, this is not a book for you.

I really enjoyed the nuanced storyline and the characters who did not behave as expected. This is a book that lingers in my subconscious. Paul, Claire and Michel try to find their equilibrium at the end of the story as Paul reflects, "You don't have to know everything about each other. Secrets didn't get in the way of happiness." Wishful thinking?

Take away: "It's like a pistol in a stage play: when someone waves a pistol during the first act, you can bet your bottom dollar that someone will be shot with it before the curtain falls. That's the law of drama. The law that says no pistol must appear if no one's going to fire it."(less)

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Mar 05, 2013 Nena rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads, unfinished

Audiobook:

Okay, I have to agree with the other reviews who gave poor reviews. The whole thing started out mildly intriguing with a man and his wife meeting up in a fancy restaurant with his brother and sister-in-law to discuss "the children" over dinner. I wondered what "the children" could have done to warrant this guy meeting up with these people who from the get-go make him uncomfortable enough to want to spend an enormous amount of time in the men's room taking detailed notes of everything a...more Audiobook:

Okay, I have to agree with the other reviews who gave poor reviews. The whole thing started out mildly intriguing with a man and his wife meeting up in a fancy restaurant with his brother and sister-in-law to discuss "the children" over dinner. I wondered what "the children" could have done to warrant this guy meeting up with these people who from the get-go make him uncomfortable enough to want to spend an enormous amount of time in the men's room taking detailed notes of everything and everyone he encounters in there. At this point, after hearing about the impressive stainless steel water wall and the guy standing next to him relieving himself (complete with a detailed description of his junk), I am thinking Who is this guy in the men's room and why is he so important to the story. Who's on first, what's on second, I don't know...third base. Turns out he is nobody. But wait, there's more.

Immediately it is obvious there is a lot of resentment and what appears to be jealousy toward his brother. He spends about 6 chapters pointing out all the things he dislikes about his brother in minutiae detail. Then we get a detailed description of the meal, including for some reason the corn. I'm thinking What's with the corn and why is it so important to the story. I don't know...third base. Turns out the corn is nothing. I am starting to think, What was this guy on when he was writing this book? I figure that I should really hang in there because somewhere down the road there has to be a payoff. I still want to know what "the children" did. After a lot more complaining about his brother and descriptions of the items on everyone's plate, yippee I didn't have to wait until the end of the book to find out what about "the children".

Short time later, it is revealed what it is that "the children" have done. It isn't pretty and in fact, pretty horrendous. After this point, the story just veers out into far left field Dronus Infinitus. Third base.

I start playing Candy Crush Saga while I listen on. Gotta keep my hands busy because my brain is falling asleep. I zone out while the story continues and then come to. Before I know it, this guy is talking about everything and anything and I am thinking Hey, what happened to the story? Once again, I don't know. Third base.

I listen a bit more, I'm lost, who is this guy and what is he talking about? I don't know. He's on third, and I don't give a darn!

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Apr 27, 2013 Maryellen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I was little I had to sit at the dinner table until I at least tried the stewed tomatoes. That was a horrible dinner. I hate stewed tomatoes. That's pretty much the end of my dinner story. Take the same subject, dinner, and put it in the hands of Herman Koch and you have quite a different tale.

Two brothers, Serge and Paul Lohman, and their wives, Babette and Claire, meet at a restaurant in their native Amsterdam that requires a several months long wait for reservations (unless you're Serge...more When I was little I had to sit at the dinner table until I at least tried the stewed tomatoes. That was a horrible dinner. I hate stewed tomatoes. That's pretty much the end of my dinner story. Take the same subject, dinner, and put it in the hands of Herman Koch and you have quite a different tale.

Two brothers, Serge and Paul Lohman, and their wives, Babette and Claire, meet at a restaurant in their native Amsterdam that requires a several months long wait for reservations (unless you're Serge Lohman) where you get served on an almost bare plate and you pay the equivalent of the price of a small car, to discuss their children. The entire book takes place over the courses of dinner from "Apéritif” to "Digestif" and the subject matter is none to appetizing.

The story is told from Paul's perspective. Paul is an unemployed history teacher who suffers from an annoyingly unnamed psychiatric malady making him prone to act out in violent bursts. Serge is a shoe-in for Prime Minister of the Netherlands with his election looming. Between the two couples they have four children: Michel, the only son of Paul and Claire; Rick and the mildly autistic Valerie, the biological children of Serge and Babette; and, Beau, the adopted son of Serge and Babette, who came from Burkina Faso, Africa. One night, after a party, three of the four teenagers are involved in a heinous crime leaving the parents to discuss how best to handle the matter, as a family.

A completely dysfunctional family.

Many times I wanted to spit this book out just like I spit out those stewed tomatoes. Yet I kept reading. The author sometimes bored me with inane details and other times left me hungry for intentionally missing morsels of the story. Yet I kept reading. There was not one character in this book that I actually liked unless you count the poor waitress who accidentally poured TOO MUCH wine in a glass~~is there such a thing as TOO MUCH wine? Yet I kept reading. Paul is whiney and really should get an award for "Worst Parent Ever". Second runner up for that award would be his wife, Claire. The writer intends for you to hate Serge and you really do. Until you don't. Each time I was ready to walk away from the table, the author lured me back in with something better than the last course. Stick with it, dessert is always the best course anyway.

This is a, “What would you do if it was your kid?” book. What lengths would you go through to protect them? What lengths would you go through to protect yourself? ✰✰✰✰
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Mar 28, 2013 Dexter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Dinner is a simple book on the familiar topic of family secrets and the extremes we go to in keeping them. The story unfolds over a restaurant dinner at an upscale Dutch eating establishment. I loved the organization of the story and the forward momentum which had me finishing this short book in just three sittings. I am a consummate foodie and the descriptions of the hypocritical restaurant culture were some of the best parts of the book for me. I also liked the schaden freude social commen...more The Dinner is a simple book on the familiar topic of family secrets and the extremes we go to in keeping them. The story unfolds over a restaurant dinner at an upscale Dutch eating establishment. I loved the organization of the story and the forward momentum which had me finishing this short book in just three sittings. I am a consummate foodie and the descriptions of the hypocritical restaurant culture were some of the best parts of the book for me. I also liked the schaden freude social commentary of the Dutch upper-class settling in remote provinces of France, living as islands Dutchmen but not assimilating with the people and French culture which surrounds them. This reminded me of expatriate retirees on islands where I come from in the Caribbean, proving we are all tribal in one way or another.

The book was weakest when it dealt with issues of racial and class stereotypes in Europe and its commentary on random youth violence. The book in fact stereotypes urban blacks strictly into two categories: baseball cap-wearing and streetwise, or assimilated white aspirants. Black culture is much richer and diverse from a wide ranging continuum than authors from the outside believe. Far too often both black and non-black authors pigeon-hole blacks, and in particular Africans and African-American, into cultural and behavioral categories which do not do justice to the history, sociology, culture, intelligence, and talents of Afro-centric people worldwide. Although Faso was at higher moral ground than his brother and cousin, I still found Mr. Koch’s commentary on race to be a major flaw perpetuating a racial stereotype.

I thought that the hereditary illness of the protagonist and his son were a bit contrived and found it difficult to suspend disbelief. That said, I thought the book was well-written and interesting enough to keep me glued to it over a weekend. I saw glimmers of genius in Herman Koch’s writing—even in translation. However, I think he still seems to be developing as a novelist. My impression is that he is an author more comfortable in the short story, novella, or play script format still trying to find his feet scaling to a full-scale novel.
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Jan 31, 2013 Robin rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: arcs-2013

Wow.

Update: This starts off fairly light with the narrator (and you will soon find out is as unrealiable as all get-out) snarking about having dinner at an expensive restaurant with his brother, a man most likely to be the next prime minister of The Netherlands (the book takes place in Amsterdam, although the setting could be any metropolitan area).

At first this reminded me of Stewart O'Nan's books with his meticulous detail of family life and its issues but there were soon hints of the darkne...more

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Feb 03, 2013 Beverly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book has one of the best “unreliable” narrators I have read. The narrator did an excellent job of using his opinion of the other main characters, notably his wife, his brother and his wife, to influence how I would feel about the characters before I met them. The format of the book is based on the courses you would have at an upscale restaurant. The two couples are meeting to discuss what needs to be done about a despicable act that their sons have committed. Over the course of the meal, I...more

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Apr 05, 2013 Laurel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, suspense

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What a peculiar book. The premise is interesting enough -- how far would you go, as a parent, to protect your child if you knew he/she had committed a terrible crime? In that sense, the book reminded me a bit of Defending Jacob. In the latter story, I was frustrated with the parents for being so consistently naive. In this book, I was frustrated with the parents for being so completely immoral and unlikeable.

The layout was unique. It is set up almost like a play, except it is organized into dinn...more

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May 11, 2013 Bernardo rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, bleh, somewhat-likeable

Not as shocking or mysterious as praise had led me to believe, but still well-written and entertaining. There are twists to the story, I suppose, they're just not the kind of twists to leave you breathless, with your heart pounding madly and questions running through your head. They're not obvious twists, neither are they ones I could have never guessed were coming, they just sort of confirmed what I already suspected about the characters and their motivations.

The characters are three-dimensiona...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library

The Dinner is about two families that come together to have dinner. At first, you don't know why they've come together because they discuss such normal things like movies, places they're gonna go for vacation, etc. But when the main course arrives, the reason for coming together is discussed - their kids.

After reading this premise, I knew I had to read it. It sounded so eerie, and I had to know what their kids did to bring them together. Barely anything was explained in the premise, so I was li...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

An engaging and absorbing work of contemporary fiction which has been likened to "We Need to Talk About Kevin".

Two sets of middle-class parents, two brothers and their wives, meet at an expensive, somewhat pretentious restaurant for an important discussion. The parents have recognised their respective sons in some CCTV footage of a brutal crime, which is shown on television. One of the fathers is about to run as Prime Minister of Holland, the other is his resentful, belligerent brother and the d...more

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May 05, 2013 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It occurred to me at the end of this story – this is a fascist novel. Not in the sense that the author is fascist or anything of the sort, but rather like pointing to a certain book and recognizing that it is a feminist novel, or a queer novel, or a Southern novel, or what have you. In 'The Dinner' we have a story in which the narrator through a long illuminating story, reveals to the reader the picture of what a secret contempt of all things “weak” or “inferior” -- formulated into an ideology a...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Jill added it · review of another edition

There is something – well, downright appetizing about The Dinner, although ultimately, you may wish for something just a bit more meaty. It’s full of totally unlikeable and morally bankrupt characters and told by an absolutely unreliable narrator but if you’re like me, you’ll want to linger with it through dessert and afterwards.

The premise: two brothers, Paul and Serge, and their wives, Claire and Babette, meet for dinner one evening in an exorbitantly pricey and pretentious restaurant in the h...more There is something – well, downright appetizing about The Dinner, although ultimately, you may wish for something just a bit more meaty. It’s full of totally unlikeable and morally bankrupt characters and told by an absolutely unreliable narrator but if you’re like me, you’ll want to linger with it through dessert and afterwards.

The premise: two brothers, Paul and Serge, and their wives, Claire and Babette, meet for dinner one evening in an exorbitantly pricey and pretentious restaurant in the heart of Amsterdam. Serge and Babette are well known; in fact, Serge is just a breath away from becoming Holland’s next Prime Minister. Paul – our narrator and a former teacher who is now non-active – is simmering with bitterness and animosity at his far more successful brother.

Each couple has a 15-year-old son; they are, of course, first cousins. Serge and Babette are also parents to another son whom they adopted in Africa. We know immediately that the boys have gotten into some kind of trouble, but the narrator withholds from us exactly what the nature of that trouble is. The unspoken question at the table becomes “how far would you go to protect the ones you love?”

As the horrific teenage transgression is gradually revealed, the grotesqueness of each set of parents also begins to uncover. Apertif and appetizer make way to entrée and dessert, yet surrounded by the trappings of civilization, these two couples are anything but civilized. Frustrations, dissatisfactions, and resentments from the past are mixed in a cauldron that can easily bubble over. Yet Paul is so unreliable that we – the readers – must question what is true and what is not in his assessments of the situation.

The Dinner is compulsively page-turning, touching on the nature versus nurture conundrum and the public masks we wear. There’s always a sense of menace that lurks right beneath the surface. The book has been compared to Christos Tsiolkas’s The Slap but also there’s a touch of Reza’s God of Carnage, Lindsay’s Defending Jacob and Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. With few missteps, it’s good to the last drop.
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Oct 10, 2012 Emily Crowe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book will be published in English by Hogarth Press in May 2013. The edition I'm reading is not listed here on Goodreads yet.

This book defines "unreliable narrator" and while it gets off to a slow start and you think, "Oh, another yuppie/bobo book where people eat fine meals", before too long, it pretty much knocks you over the head with disturbing images and plot. It was totally insidious the way this book worked on me. Not exceptionally written (or perhaps it was in the translation) but t...more

13 likes · like · see review

Mar 15, 2013 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads

The only thing I knew going into this book was it was a story about a dinner between two brothers and they needed to talk about their children. You, too, should only know that going into this and enjoy the ride. Although, enjoy is a relative term; perhaps take the ride on a winding road and see where it takes you. Just when you think the curve goes to the right, there will be something in the road and you will have to go left.

6 likes · like · see review

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About Herman Koch

Herman Koch (1953) is known as a television producer and a writer. The book 'Het diner', published in 2009, was his breakthrough in the Netherlands. It was published in 17 countries. It was partly based on a true story involving a homeless woman named, María del Rosario Endrinal Petit, in Barcelona (Spain), in December 2005.

Koch was born in Arnhem, and later moved to Amsterdam. He studied Russian...more

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Quotes from The Dinner

“... technically, just like with the rings of a tree or Carbon-14, it had to be possible to measure the passage of time by the melting of vanilla ice cream.” — 4 people liked it

“The first thing that struck you about Claire’s plate was its vast emptiness. Of course I’m well aware that, in the better restaurants, quality takes precedence over quantity, but there are voids and then there are voids. The void here, that part of the plate on which no food at all was present, had clearly been raised to a matter of principle.
It was as though the empty plate was challenging you to say something about it, to go to the open kitchen and demand an explanation. ‘You wouldn’t even dare!’ the plate said, and laughed in your face.” — 2 people liked it

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