The Dinner. Finished 2-14-17, rating 4/5, pub. 2013

Unabridged audio read by Clive Mantle. 9 hours.

A summer’s evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the delicate scraping of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of politeness – the banality of work, the triviality of holidays. But the empty words hide a terrible conflict and, with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened… Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children and, as civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple shows just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.       from Goodreads

This is one of those books that the less you know the better so I’m not going to spoil any more than the description from Goodreads, and even that I deleted a few sentences. Amsterdam at an expensive restaurant, brothers and their wives, testy relationships put to the test.  It was…different.  Thought provoking, yes.  Enjoyable, sorta.  Recommended, if unlikeable characters are your thing.

I’m so glad that I listened to the audio. Mantle really sold Paul and elevated the story with his performance.

The movie featuring Richard Gere and Laura Linney is coming out in May!