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  • The Dinner

  • By: Herman Koch
  • Narrated by: Clive Mantle
  • Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
  • 3.7 out of 5 stars (245 ratings)
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The Dinner cover art

The Dinner

By: Herman Koch
Narrated by: Clive Mantle
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Summary

Shortlisted for: International Author of the Year – Specsavers National Book Awards 2012

A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. 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 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, and as civility and friendship disintegrates, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.

©2009 Herman Koch (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook

What listeners say about The Dinner

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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    69
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Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
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  • 19-10-14

A wonderfully dark modern parable.

I'm a sucker for a good allegory, and Herman Koch serves up a deliciously dark apologue in "The Dinner" with the dysfunctional families at the heart of the tale representing those of us in the privileged West, and how - either through complacency, complicity or actual downright bloodyminded and fully conscious awareness - we'll cross our so called "civilised" moral borders in order to protect our own, and hang onto our entitled lifestyle, should they be threatened.
There's nobody to like here and, wonderfully, the only character who's willing to do what's "right" is the one we universally and instinctively despise: a vain and self-serving politician. We're all in here somewhere, no matter our class, and we're all found guilty. A wonderful and disturbing book that was brilliantly narrated.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Truly Excellent

One of the best books I have read/listened to for a long time Interesting view on middle class life and a neat twist in the tail

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable book, great narrator

Clive Mantle does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life in this audiobook - his reading is lively and he manages to give voice to the female characters without adopting an annoying falsetto.

The book mixes a funny take-down of the pretentions of snooty restaurants with the drama of parents confronted by the dilemma of how to respond to the crimes of their children.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Looked good but looks can be deceiving!

This book was dull and it looked as if it was going to be so good. Too much detail of the same thing! The narrater is trying to sound like Steven Fry but badly! Its something about nothing really.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Not very nice people

A nasty little book about nasty people and not in a good way. Slow, dreary and dull

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Dark and disturbing

The characters in this novel are not there for you to befriend. They are dark, disturbing and unlikeable, yet the pace of the text and the unravelling of their lives is hugely compelling so you have to stick with it. This was hard to listen to at times but impossible to abandon. A mesmerising listen.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Ho hum, Herman

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend an abridged version of this audiobook. It is an interesting premise with thoroughly despicable (but eminently entertaining) characters that is hampered by unnecessary prose, such as Paul's Lohman's interminable speculation.

Would you be willing to try another book from Herman Koch? Why or why not?

Perhaps.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Much of the main protagonist's thoughts did little more than extend the book by as much as 10,000 words. Was there a word limit imposed by the publisher...

Do you think The Dinner needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. This is a self-contained story that deals with a series of events. Although the book deals with a hereditary and escalating pattern of behaviour anything further would simply be gratuitous. That said, there may be many readers thirsty for the Lohman's comeuppance.

Any additional comments?

Worth a listen.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

One dinner covering one whole lifetime

I enjoyed this book but moreover was intreguied by the many MANY different themes played out in the story. Although it takes place over one dinner it covers a lifetime of guilt, jealousy, hurt, love, trust in one family. The characters are believable and the relationships between them will hit a chord with every reader. A thoroughly good read.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Enthralling, a rollercoaster of emotions

I guess this is what is known as black humour. The restaurant scenes took me to the belly laughter stage, but the underlying darkness also kept my wits on edge. I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook and even though it took on a somewhat surreal twist towards the end, it still gripped me. I also thought the narrator did a great job. One of the most enjoyable 'reads' in ages.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Still bothers me

It is difficult to write about this performance without spoiling the story. It had me hooked but in an uncomfortable way and that is how it leaves you at the end. The twist - running from the start to the finish - is everything, but yet it is entirely subtle.

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2 people found this helpful