The Dinner [Paperback]

The Dinner has already sold over a million copies in Europe and it is easy to see why. This is a novel with a compelling narrative, easy to read but with a dark heart to it. It will be loved by book groups because there is plenty to discuss here.

It starts off in a fairly light-hearted way with the narrator, Paul Lohman and his wife Claire, on their way to dinner with Paul's brother Serge and his wife Babette. Paul is dryly humorous about his brother's choice of restaurant, the sort of place where people have to book three months in advance, and throughout the book we are treated to descriptions of the pretentious food they are served (the sort of restaurant where food has a provenance: 'the crayfish are dressed in a vinaigrette of estragon and baby green onions ... and these are chanterelles from the Vosges'). But this is no ordinary dinner party. There is a family crisis which they have to discuss. Both couples have a fifteen year old son and both couples know that their sons have been involved in a horrific act of violence which has been caught on CCTV and shown on national TV. The Lohmans have to decide what they are going to do about this and naturally there are differences of opinion.

As the novel progresses we are given snippets of information about the past and gradually it becomes clear that Paul is an unreliable narrator. This ensures that we never quite know where our sympathies should lie (other than with the victim of the boys' crime, of course).

Koch has said that he got the idea for the book from a similar incident of violence in Spain (where he now lives). What shocked people most was that the boys involved in the crime came from stable middle class families and it set him thinking 'what if ...'. On its own this idea would have been quite a good idea for a novel but Koch's characterisation of the Lohman brothers lifts it to another level and the startling climax will get the book groups going. Recommended.

This was my book club book and, had it not been, I might not have continued with it. I don't feel it lived up to its very good reviews

`The Dinner' is easily digested in a day, in fact I read it on the beach and felt jolly glad of the sausages, bacon, cooked on a driftwood fire simply served, that I had really enjoyed. The dramatic dinner in question is held at the most pompously pretentious of restaurants, each course overly introduced by a manager who cannot help waving his `pinkie' over every morsel detailing its provenance and daring the diners not to appreciate it all. Prissily patronising the patrons. The cost of this evening is terribly high, unbelievably, laughably so, in financial, career and relationship terms.

By happy co incidence tonight Herman Koch, the author who is also a tv producer, was being interviewed on Radio Four's 'Front Row'. There are certainly some Oscar worthy acting performances from his characters. He explains that his book is like a play, in several acts, each corresponding to a course of the meal. It can't actually be performed as such as our narrator, Paul, is also telling us the back-story, and to complicate matters, he is unreliable, prone to fudging issues, he also has his own demons. The given theme is middle class parenting and how far would you go in order to protect your child's future, despite the knowledge that cannot be ignored, that here both boys, cousins, have carried out a dreadful crime.

The foursome held hostage by good manners and the audience of other diners are brothers Serge and Paul with their respective wives Babette and Claire. Serge is set for great things, perhaps to be the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands. He has celebrity status, a golden glow, but he is at a crossroads. Babette is weeping throughout and with good reason. Claire, Paul's wife is attractive, warm, funny and strong. She has a very close bond with her son Michel. Paul is 'non active' which is probably something lost in translation, he is on long term sick leave from his teaching career. As the events unfold certainties are swept away and the true natures of the four are revealed. Exciting, frightening and surprising things happen, there are huge twists at the end, which should keep any book club in discussion for a good while.

It was great to have an early chance to read this book, translated from the Dutch, and to get a taste of another culture from the inside. A dark modern day tragedy resonating with classical themes, it looks set to storm our charts and will be well received by those who enjoy family dilemmas and the chilly winds of schadenfreude. I loved it. Now I'm waiting for Sommerhaus mit Swimmingpool to be translated.