The Dinner

• I liked the way he simmered the first few pages with scathing and bitter sarcasm that made me laugh out loud multiple times. I liked how he careened the subject matter from inconsequential topics into loaded, parental issues and murder subjects seamlessly.

• Here the author, with unusual skill, manages to compress the entire tale into the span of a single dinner, which never lacks detail or feels dull. How does one react when faced with a criminal act committed by a teenage child? Does one empathize fully with their emotional state, defending them unconditionally, or shun and condemn them as just another criminal on the face of the earth?

• "The Dinner" is a book of apparent simplicity, yet of delightful grandeur. It is a top-notch psychological thriller that plays with your trust in the narrator and the facts, influences you, toys with your emotions, and intrigues you right from the start. Herman works in a way that hooks you through two infallible anchors: curiosity and narrative craft.

• I really loved this truly original, atypical novel conceived as a closed-door drama set in a restaurant to the rhythm of the meal's courses. A stifling chamber piece from which we escape thanks to Paul, whom we follow through the maze of his thoughts and memories. In this way, the plot gradually reveals itself through the narrator's reminiscences, interspersed between dishes.

• Chilling. How far will parents go to protect their children? The characters, tormented from the very start, carry a secret they don't openly share, yet it's palpable in their nervousness and strange behavior. They generate anxiety and distress, and the author expertly sustains that tension throughout. Then comes the surprise, followed by the dilemma of how it will be resolved. Recommended.

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