One day, Paul Lohman and his wife, Claire, receive an invitation to dine at a fancy restaurant. The invitee is Paul's brother, Serge Lohman, and his wife, Babette. Ostensibly, Serge wants to use the dinner as a kind of family meeting, so they can all talk about something important.
Though reluctant to go, Paul accepts the invitation. Since he is a candidate in the upcoming elections for Dutch prime minister, Serge uses his high status to get them a table that very night. Once they're all gathered, the conversation starts politely enough, though bad feelings from each diner give the dinner an unpleasant aftertaste. As courses are served and cleared away, talk eventually turns to their children. The tension that had been present throughout the night finally reaches a tipping point as each diner must come to a decision that could affect, not just their own lives, but those of their beloved children as well.
The Dinner (Het diner) is a 2009 Dutch mystery-thiller novel by Herman Koch. The whole book is narrated from Paul's perspective, broken up by both chapters and sections labeled after different dinner courses. The novel's popularity garnered it three different film adaptations: one in Dutch that was released in 2013, one in Italian (titled I nostri ragazzi) that was released in 2014, and an American adaptation (titled The Dinner) that was released in 2017.
This novel provides examples of:
- Blackmail Backfire: Beau's attempts to blackmail his adoptive brother Rick and cousin Michel with footage of their murder of the homeless woman not only fail, but also cost him his life as Rick and Michel ultimately murder him.
- Fancy Dinner: The main events of the novel take place in a nameless restaurant that's clearly on the higher end of fine dinning. The dishes served are clearly expensive and the general atmosphere of the place is meant to make the diners feel like one of the upper crust. This is to bring a stark contrast to the actual discussion of violence and murder that the main character and his family are having.
- Happily Adopted: Beau is Serge and Babette's adopted son from Burkina Faso, who was raised like one of their own. Considering Beau's attempts to blackmail his adoptive brother and cousin, Paul questions whether Beau was ever truly happy being part of the family.
- Happily Married: Although they've had some issues, on the whole, Paul and Claire are very much in love and happy together.
- How We Got Here: The novel begins with both Lohman couples meeting at a fancy resturant to discuss an important family matter. Through a series of flashbacks, the reader gradually pieces together the events that led up to the dinner.
- It Runs in the Family: Paul suffers from a neurological disorder that makes him prone to violent behavior. Michel's murderous actions make Paul wonder if his son has inherited that disorder, though its also implied that Michel could simply have been psychologically influenced by Paul outside of genetics.
- Karma Houdini: The ending suggests that Michel and Rick completely get away with their manslaughter of the homeless woman and their murder of their cousin/adoptive brother Beau. Claire also gets away with her public assault of Serge, simply because Serge didn't consider it a good idea to file charges against his own sister-in-law.
- Sibling Rivalry:
- The tension between Paul and Serge is mainly a result between one brother feeling inferior to the other, and thus attempting to one up him. That said, Paul's sociopathic tendencies, particularly the time he physically assaulted Serge when they were younger, also no doubt played a part in their antipathy towards each other.
- It's possible that Beau's decision to blackmail his adoptive brother Rick (and his cousin Michel) also stems from a feeling of inferiority; it's implied that Beau was adopted by Serge and Babette in order to bolster Serge's chances at winning the prime minister's seat while Rick is their biological child. There's doubtless little love lost between the two because of this.
- The Sociopath: Rick murders a homeless woman for no other reason than she was a) in his way and b) smelled really bad, Michel kills his cousin Beau because he tried to blackmail them, Paul has some violent tendencies himself, and none of these people show much- or any- remorse or guilt over their actions. Claire may also have some sociopathic traits, if her attack on Serge is anything to judge.
- Teens Are Monsters: Rick and Michel attack a helpless homeless woman for no other reason than she smelled awful and she was in their way. Michel also murders his cousin Beau in cold blood because Beau had tried to blackmail them.
- Vigilante Man: Michel might consider himself to be hero who's working outside the law to bring justice to criminals: Michel had once written a school essay justifying the extra-judicial killing of heinous criminals. His attack on the homeless woman in the ATM could have been motivated in part by a desire to punish her for squatting. During the dinner itself, Paul and Claire try to mitigate the boys' actions by suggesting that the homeless woman wasn't actually an "innocent".
