Paul Lohman and his brother Serge and their wives are going to dinner. Paul knows the evening will not be fun. The restaurant will be overpriced and pretentious, and almost everything the charismatic Serge does will infuriate him.
But tonight's get-together will be worse than usual because there is something the two couples have to discuss.
When the small talk is over, the conversation will turn to their teenage sons. And the terrible thing they have done. And how far the four of them will go to save their children from the consequences of their actions.
The Dinner
Hailed as the European Gone Girl, The Dinner is a tense thriller set over the course of a meal at which two brothers and their wives will discuss a disturbing incident involving their sons. Koch meticulously unpacks the characters, their history and the events that have brought us to this moment, throwing in a good pinch of social commentary and an insight into contemporary Dutch life. Giving the book this set timeline of the dinner really amps the intensity and the pace of novel, keeping the reader both enthralled and horrified. A subtle, chilling and intelligent novel, I don't normally read this genre but I think I've been converted. As reviewed by 08sv
Toombul, 28/07/2014
