Het Diner

Two fifteen-year-old cousins, Michel and Rick Lohman, do something terrible one night, after a party and in a drunken state. Their crime can lead them to years of imprisonment. Michel's father, Paul, knows what the boys did because he recognized his son on the grainy images from a security camera shown in the TV show Opsporing.

Paul suspects that his brother Serge Lohman, a brilliant politician and painted winner of the upcoming election, also knows about it, because Serge has invited Paul and his wife to come and eat (and talk) in a chic restaurant. So although Paul knows about his son's act, there is still much that is unclear to him. What does his wife Claire know, for example? And who put film images of the deed on the internet? What exactly does Serge know, and above all: how can this problem be solved? Is it still possible for Paul, his wife Claire and their son Michel to be the happy family together that Paul says they have been forming for years? On the evening of dinner, Paul learns more and more - doesn't he?

Herman Koch (Author)