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
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
An ALA Notable Book of the Year
New York Times Bestseller • USA Today Bestseller • Los Angeles Times Bestseller
“A European
Gone Girl . . .
The Dinner, a sly psychological thriller that hinges on a horrific crime and its consequences for two families, has become one of spring’s most anticipated suspense novels.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“
The Dinner begins with drinks and dark satire, and goes stealthily and hauntingly from there. It's chilling, nasty, smart, shocking and unputdownable.”
—Gillian Flynn, New York Times bestselling author of Gone Girl
“[Koch] has created a clever, dark confection . . . absorbing and highly readable.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Tongue-in-cheek page-turner.”
—The Washington Post
“The best part about
The Dinner was this tension taking place above the plates. As the meal wore on, I realized I couldn't get up from the table.”
—Rosecrans Baldwin, NPR
“Poised to shake up American publishing…Koch tells a story that could very well take away your appetite.”
—USA Today
“[A] deliciously Mr. Ripley-esque drama.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine“You’ll eat it up, with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Every detail . . . manage[s] to catch our attention when Herman Koch uses them to develop his curious characters and bring us into the dark and thought-provoking plot.”
—Seattle Post Intelligencer
“A tart main course that explores how quickly the facade of civility can crumble. It's hard to digest at times, but with a thought-provoking taste that lingers.”—
Cleveland Plain Dealer“[
The Dinner] 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“Briskly paced and full of ingenious twists—a compulsive read . . . for those who can tolerate the unsavory company,
The Dinner is a treat they’ll gulp down in one sitting.”
—Dallas Morning News
“Mesmerizing and disturbing . . . fast-paced and addictive . . .
The Dinner, already a bestseller in Europe, is sure to find an enthusiastic American readership as well.”
—BookPage
“This is a cunningly crafted thriller that will never allow you to look at a serviette in the same way again.”—
Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A chilling vision of the ugliness of keeping up appearances.”
—Kirkus
