Login to your ABC account
Create a new ABC account
Complete your ABC account
Welcome
Forgot your password?
Password reset link sent…
We've sent an email to email. Please follow the instructions in it to set your new password
Reset your password
New wishlist
From the author of the internationally bestselling The Dinner, a dark and gripping novel about how even the most stable of people can be undone by jealousy.
"In his 11th novel, Dutch bestselling author Herman Koch skewers the polite racism and classism of Dutch society but fails to bring the plot to satisfaction. The Ditch follows Robert Walter, the fictional mayor of Amsterdam, who at the outset of the novel becomes convinced his wife, who originates from an unnamed ‘southern’ country, is cheating on him with one of the city’s aldermen. Walter concludes this based on little more than a fleeting interaction, but the thought consumes him. For the first half of the book, the reader is unsure whether Walter’s suspicions are merely insecurity or if his wife really is cheating on him. But then there’s a missing cat, a pet rabbit (featured on the cover), the euthanasia wish of his parents, the resurfacing of an attack on a police officer from Walter’s protest days, and a convoluted story of how he met his wife. It strays much too far from the original premise and turns from a deep dive into jealously into a wild ride of unbelievable fantasy. A shout out, however, to the translation. The Ditch is so seamless, you are almost unaware the book wasn’t penned originally in English. Sam Garrett, who describes the Dutch language as ‘shouting in a storm,’ has translated several of Koch’s other works, including his most famous, The Dinner." reviewed by Molly Quell.
Read more at DutchNews.nl:
Selected Highlights
ABC Friends