The Dinner

Koch, Herman

ISBN 10: 1620645912 ISBN 13: 9781620645918

Publisher: Audiogo, 2013

Synopsis

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 polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. 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. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love. Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, "The Dinner" promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy. "

About this title

Product Description:

Meeting at a fashionable Amsterdam restaurant for dinner, two couples move from small talk to the wrenching shared challenge of their teenage sons' shattering act of violence that has triggered a police investigation and revealed the extent to which each family will go to protect those they love. Read by Clive Mantle. Simultaneous.

Review:

An essential summer read * Independent Magazine * The talking point of the summer * Sunday Times * I'm confidently predicting that The Dinner will become this summer's literary talk of the town... Order yours now -- Melanie McGrath * Evening Standard * Rather like The Slap it is set to become a contentious must-read. It may thrill, chill or cheat, but it is undeniably riveting -- Arifa Akbar * Independent * 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 * The perfect undemanding, credible, terrifying beach read * Financial Times * Proves how powerful fiction can be in illuminating the modern world... The best beach read of the season * Economist *

About this edition

• Publisher: Audiogo
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1620645912
• ISBN 13: 9781620645918
• Binding: Audio CD