Gerard Woodward’s Nourishment is one that features a number of sudden left-turns in plot, all accomplished without losing momentum. Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley novels are a perfect example - although, after you have read the first one, you know a bizarre twist is inevitable in the others. I have an abiding affection for books that successfully establish an engaging “realistic” story and then, dramatically or with careful deliberation, successfully change course and head somewhere far darker. The Dinner is the first of Herman Koch’s seven novels that I have read (actually, as far as I can tell it is the only one that has been translated into English) but the Dutch author has already claimed a spot in a sparsely-populated room in KfC’s gallery of reading. Review copy courtesy Random House Canada Translated by Sam Garrett
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