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 … 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
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Wow. After a somewhat innocuous start I couldn’t believe where the story was going – and that feeling of disbelief just intensified right up to the end. Incredibly dark and no doubt WAY too prescient about the desensitization of violence the world over – but also, in a VERY twisted way, a paean to family and the increasingly lost art of familial …
I’ve seen adjectives like these in a number of reader reviews: disturbing, despicable, amoral. You may end up hating every single character. Not much should be taken literally here, because the narrator is a mental case. But this is what makes it such a fascinating read. In the end, you are left wondering what is real and what isn’t. If nothing …
This book has been on my radar for a long time and I finally decided I needed to satisfy my curiosity. This was made into a movie in 2017 (no, I haven’t seen it, but I’m considering). The story is kind of like a train wreck. A distasteful mess, but hard to ignore.
Set in the Netherlands, the basic premise involves two well-to-do couples, …
I loved this book so much, that I read it twice and bought copies for my friends.
(The movie was terrible). What would you do to save your child?
This is an unusual book that accomplished A LOT. I have to admit, when I was about 1/3 of the way into it, I started getting antsy. I stopped reading for a while, so my time between reading the first 1/3 or so and the rest was quite chunked. Why did I stop for a while? In my opinion and for my taste, there was too little “cashing in” on the …
Paul Lohman and his wife, Claire, are going out to dinner tonight with Paul’s brother, Serge, and his sister-in-law, Babette. Paul is not looking forward to this dinner. He seems to be a bit of a homebody, dedicated to his wife and fifteen-year-old son, Michel, maybe even a bit of a misanthrope. He certainly doesn’t want to go to the fancy type of …
***SPOILER ALERT***
Very disappointing. The story had so much potential, but the author didn’t take it anywhere. A crime is committed and the parents hide it to protect their child. The end.
I listened to the audio version of this book. I really don’t know what to say about this book. It was brilliant in the amount of times that the author was able to surprise me. I loved how the book was broken up into groups of chapters to go along with the different courses of the dinner. I, at the same time,was horrified by the way the plot …
Layer by layer shredding down lies and bad choice. Where we go from here now? That is the question we all have to answer to ourselves. Love the characters and how arrive in naked inner self . Amazing book. Must read it. My brain still progressing all this emotional journey.
I found myself dreading the book. It caused so much angst that I would just stare at it with a sneer. I guess one could say that the writer certainly knows how to pull out the emotions in you. It is very descriptive and well written, but I would not wish those emotions on another reader.
Loved the way this book was written. I could picture everything happening. I also enjoyed the twists. It made for a good discussion at book club. How far are you willing to go for your child?
Odd but interesting. Very different characters and lots for discussion for sure
It was a chore to finish this book.
Frankly, I gave up and saw the movie. This type of crazy is easier to follow on film. That being said, it was a good story.
Different it makes you thinks about what would I do in this crisis.
I did not love this book nor did I hate it. For me, I need this feel connected to the characters. That wasn’t possible in this novel.
Okay you aren’t going to know how this book ends. Your sympathetic feelings will be dissuaded
An interesting, though ultimately unsatisfying tale. Some very nice storytelling is regrettably diminished by a plot that is several shades too transparent. The best part of the book is the use of, the now common style of, short, quick hitting chapters to keep the pace brisk. What surprises the denouement brings are negated by the thinness of the …
This book did not deliver . I kept waiting for the twists and turns but sadly it was only at the end that anything interesting happened
Interesting story of parents going to lengths for their children