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The Dinner
- Narrated by: Clive Mantle
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
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The Dinner
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Summary
Shortlisted for: International Author of the Year – Specsavers National Book Awards 2012
A summer's evening in Amsterdam and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse - the banality of work, the triviality of holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened. Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son.
The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children, and as civility and friendship disintegrates, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
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What listeners say about The Dinner
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Bella
- 23-12-12
A tale both familiar and sinister
Underlying the story are emotions all too familiar - sibling rivalry, ambition, love and need between couples, parental devotion, children growing into adulthood. Yet as the thread unfolds other issues emerge and the plot deepens into sinister realms. This is a book well written and translated from its Dutch origins, set in a modern world. It is also well read by Clive Mantle, who manages to make all the different characters believable.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Sararara
- 05-05-21
Clever but horrid
A really difficult frustrating read. The horrors are drip-fed very slowly, in time with the serving of a fancy 5-course meal.
The actions recounted are plain nasty but it’s the eloquent rejection of personal responsibility (or morality) which is truly shocking. And cleverly done.
This is not a book about ‘how far would you go to protect those you love’ (as per the book cover) as that’s really beside the point.
It’s about the civilised veneer overlaying our base behaviour and how, with subtle wordplay and misdirection, we justify our actions.
Reminds me of The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg 1824).
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael M.
- 20-03-24
Blood-curdling
Superbly read. This story will haunt me for a very long time. What a novel.... Emotionally exhausting!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Taylor
- 06-09-12
Enjoyable book, great narrator
Clive Mantle does an excellent job of bringing the characters to life in this audiobook - his reading is lively and he manages to give voice to the female characters without adopting an annoying falsetto.
The book mixes a funny take-down of the pretentions of snooty restaurants with the drama of parents confronted by the dilemma of how to respond to the crimes of their children.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- CARRYN
- 23-12-12
Truly Excellent
One of the best books I have read/listened to for a long time Interesting view on middle class life and a neat twist in the tail
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Adrienne
- 23-12-12
Dark and disturbing
The characters in this novel are not there for you to befriend. They are dark, disturbing and unlikeable, yet the pace of the text and the unravelling of their lives is hugely compelling so you have to stick with it. This was hard to listen to at times but impossible to abandon. A mesmerising listen.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Charlie
- 27-12-12
Still bothers me
It is difficult to write about this performance without spoiling the story. It had me hooked but in an uncomfortable way and that is how it leaves you at the end. The twist - running from the start to the finish - is everything, but yet it is entirely subtle.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Suzanne Murray
- 07-01-24
Contempt each of the characters have for one another but try to conceal
The narrator portrayed the quirks of the protagonist very well .
Unexpected twists & turns as the tale concludes .
I want to watch the film adaptation .
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-09-18
Good performance but the plot and ending boring.
I had to really work had to finish this. It was like spending too much time with an annoying, boring, self obsessed relative.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Zoe86
- 24-04-22
Avoid. Utter drivel
I thought the premise of this book sounded interesting but it was absolutely appalling. Tedious, rambling, uninteresting. Complete drivel. I really can't see how this got published, it's truly poor. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. I can't see how anyone would find this interesting. It's just BAD.
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