The Dinner
Feb 2013 · Sold by Hogarth
3.5star
98 reviews
Ebook
304
Pages
family_home
Eligible
info
About this ebook
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The darkly suspenseful tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives—all over the course of one meal. Now a major motion picture.
“Chilling, nasty, smart, shocking, and unputdownable.”—Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
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 scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. 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, and as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
“A European Gone Girl . . . A sly psychological thriller.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Brilliantly engineered . . . The novel is designed to make you think twice, then thrice, not only about what goes on within its pages, but also the next time indignation rises up, pure and fiery, in your own heart.”—Salon
“You’ll eat it up, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”—Entertainment Weekly
“[Koch] has created a clever, dark confection . . . absorbing and highly readable.”—New York Times Book Review
“Tongue-in-cheek page-turner.”—The Washington Post
“[A] deliciously Mr. Ripley-esque drama.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“Chilling, nasty, smart, shocking, and unputdownable.”—Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl
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 scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse. 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, and as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
“A European Gone Girl . . . A sly psychological thriller.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Brilliantly engineered . . . The novel is designed to make you think twice, then thrice, not only about what goes on within its pages, but also the next time indignation rises up, pure and fiery, in your own heart.”—Salon
“You’ll eat it up, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”—Entertainment Weekly
“[Koch] has created a clever, dark confection . . . absorbing and highly readable.”—New York Times Book Review
“Tongue-in-cheek page-turner.”—The Washington Post
“[A] deliciously Mr. Ripley-esque drama.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
Ratings and reviews
3.5
98 reviews
MC
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December 24, 2016
I have been thinking about The Dinner since I finished reading it, and I have been struggling to figure out what I wanted to say in my review. Personally, I did not enjoy this book. As I was reading it, I kept thinking that it could have had potential if only a few things had been different. But the more I think about it, the more I realize that I just really didn't like this book and I don't think anything can change my opinion. I have been wanting to read The Dinner for years because it is known as "a European Gone Girl." Well, I absolutely loved Gone Girl, so I was so excited for another thrilling, suspenseful read. That is not what I found. This book is only about 300 pages long, and at the halfway point, I still had no clue what the actual plot of the story was. The first 150 pages consisted of the narrator recounting random, pointless family anecdotes and complaining about the food at the restaurant where the story takes place. I truly can't remember anything that happened in those pages that was really relevant to the story in the end. Then, around the middle of the book, the great plot twist was FINALLY revealed and we learned why the adults were having an important dinner to discuss their sons. My first reaction was, "You made me wait 150 pages for THAT?" I try not to put too much weight on plot points in reviews, because liking or disliking aspects of the plot can be a very personal opinion and can be overlooked for things like character development and writing style. But I felt like I had been waiting so long for this big reveal, and then I was totally let down. I wanted more suspense, more drama, more questions.
5 people found this review helpful
A Google user
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May 10, 2013
I wanted so much to like this book purely for its uniqueness. In the end it just fell flat.
2 people found this review helpful
Lynn Heimlich
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March 3, 2013
What lies beneath the surface of this book are the things people keep hidden, even from themselves. The reactions of the main characters as the 'habituation' of their lives is threatened, and the insights into underlying causes, are quite provocative. How can a person make so many wrong choices and still believe they have the right of it? And is this something we have done in our own lives? But the author does it in such a seemingly innocuous way that you don't realize until you're already there.
1 person found this review helpful
About the author
HERMAN KOCH is the author of seven novels and three collections of short stories. The Dinner, his sixth novel, has been published in 25 countries, and was the winner of the Publieksprijs Prize in 2009. He currently lives in Amsterdam.
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