Herman Koch..The Dinner

[MrsRobertDuvallHasRosacea]

Just started this and am hooked.
It takes place over a dinner in a restaurant. 2 couples who each have a 15 year old son, who have committed a "horrifying act, caught on camera...despite a police manhunt the boys remain unidentified by everyone except their parents".

It's translated from the Dutch and is very sharp.

I have got as far as the section called " appetiser"

It's reminiscent of "Carnage".

I'm on Dessert, it is very good, different in style, I think Paul isn't exactly likeable as a character which works. More is revealed about him than his son.

Great I have it in my kindle, will give it a go.

I've just finished it, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Very unexpected ending - hurry up and finish it so I can discuss it with you

Ooh I will have to crack on this weekend then!!!

It sounds really intriguing, I've looked at it on Kindle store a few times. But without giving anything away, how horrifying is horrifying? I can't read anything involving cruelty of any description since I had DS.

So far nothing has been given away.

But I am not averse to a bit of cruelty.

Ok. Will watch this thread. Would you mind just saying when you've finished it 'Proper Horrifying' or 'Not Very Horrifying'?

There's one upsetting incident - not related to children - and the rest is the aftermath. Does that help?

It does. A bit. Thanks Agent.

I used to read all kinds of horror, just can't face it now. Have to toughen up though, I'm restricted to non-fiction travelogues these days.

One upsetting incident? I thought two at least, both to do with what I think your talking about. Three actually. Or maybe I'm just squeamish!

Finished last night. Started another Scandi-crime book called The Nightmare, truly scary stuff!

Thought it was really gripping. Loved the way the pathos was built around the various courses!

I found the tone of it very confusing - I couldn't tell if it was meant to be a satire. By the end, it had kind of descended into some sort of black farce. Using the meal as the structure was a brilliant device of shining a light on bourgeois mores and I thought the central question - "How far would you go to protect your family?" - was really interesting but the book kind of ducked it by losing a grip on reality.

I also found the (American) English translation irritating.

We read it for our NCT branch reading group, although I'd only part read the book and missed the start of the discussion. It's a good discussion book though I probably wouldn't have picked it out, and didn't really like it much....

and there was some stuff there that didn't make sense.

Ooh nasty, nasty people.
Just finished it......it is quite far fetched, but gripping.

Nothing graphic...