A review by lizee59402
The Dinner by Herman Koch

4.0

It was a suspenseful read that I couldn't put down. The story of two brothers and their wives at dinner, and the secret they all carry, is well crafted in such a way that builds as the courses are served. I really liked how details are permanently omitted by the narrator and how you get brief glimpses into his own illness, which is never named throughout the novel. It leaves the reader thinking of how the narrator's son might also have unnamed illness, another variable playing into the secret causing much turmoil among the two couples at dinner. Suspenseful and interesting, yet disturbingly keeping the issues 'in the family'.