Herman Koch
Herman Koch (b. 1953) is an internationally best-selling author.
-pablo-koch-deze-foto-gebruiken.jpg)
In 2009 he wrote The Dinner, which was translated into 42 languages and garnered world fame. In the years that followed, bestsellers such as Summer House with Swimming Pool (2011), Dear Mr M. (2014), The Ditch and Finnish Days (2020) were published. In 2024 he published the memoir Are You Going to Write About It? after he was diagnosed with cancer.
More Herman Koch
Odessa Star
It’s a standard literary trope: an unremarkable man starts to fantasise about the gangster lifestyle, gets in with the wrong crowd and plunges himself into ruin. But in his fourth novel, Herman Koch presents his own twisted take on this familiar plotline: his protagonist Fred Moorman, stranded in a meaningless job and a joyless marriage is anything but a pitiful victim.
Thinking of Bruce Kennedy
When it comes to protagonists, Herman Koch delights in dishing up men who have at least one screw loose. 'Thinking of Bruce Kennedy' is different: the novel that directly preceded The Dinner centres on a female character who, in many respects, is perfectly normal.
The Dinner
Four people. One dinner. An unavoidable decision. The blurb for Herman Koch’s new novel sounds like a film trailer and the reader is not disappointed. The story of a father wanting the best for his child unfolds like a tightly directed family drama with black edges, in which at every turn a little more of the underlying reality is revealed. How far will the father go to protect his son after he finds out what terrible thing the boy has done? Far, is the answer.
Dear Mr M.
Following his ruthless dissections of the hypocrisy of the moneyed classes and corruption in the medical profession, Herman Koch turns his dystopian gaze on the literary world. In his new novel, 'Dear Mr M.' he tells the tale of a fading writer held grimly to account by a neighbour with a score to settle. Did 'Reckoning', the novel that cemented Mr M’s literary success all those years ago, culpably distort the facts of a mysterious missing persons case?