Dinner, The

Description: I felt the same cold that I had felt earlier that evening in my son's room, the cold that came from inside. Beside the homeless person's head, Rick's face appeared. My nephew grinned at the camera. 'Take one,' he said. 'Action!' An evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet for dinner to discuss their teenage sons. The boys have committed a horrifying crime, caught on CCTV, but so far they remain unidentified - except by their parents. Over the polite hum of restaurant conversation and the squeal of cutlery on plates, the couples have a question to answer: how far will they go to protect their children?

Review: What a tremendous book. I loved every single gripping and strange thing about it. * MJ Hyland * Riveting, compelling and deliciously uncomfortable * Christos Tsiolkas * Shivers kept shooting up my backbone as I became engrossed in Koch's darkly disturbing tale of family life... As the dinner disintegrates into mayhem, we discover just how far the middle classes will go to protect their monstrous offspring -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail * A brilliantly addictive novel that wraps its hands around your throat on page one and doesn't let go * SJ Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep * Smart, shocking and unputdownable * Gillian Flynn * A feast of a novel... Spine-chillingly brilliant * Evening Standard * Deliciously dark * Independent * Gripping * Sunday Times *



Prizes: Long-listed for IMPAC DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2013 (UK).

Author Biography: Herman Koch, born in 1953, is a Dutch writer. The Dinner is his sixth novel and won the Netherlands' most prestigious literary prize. Herman Koch currently lives in Amsterdam. Sam Garrett has translated some 30 novels and works of non-fiction, for which he has won prizes and appeared on shortlists for some of the world's most prestigious literary awards.