Summer house with a swimming pool /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The blistering, compulsively readable new novel from Herman Koch, author of the instant New York Time s bestseller The Dinner .

When a medical procedure goes horribly wrong and famous actor Ralph Meier winds up dead, Dr. Marc Schlosser needs to come up with some answers. After all, reputation is everything in this business. Personally, he's not exactly upset that Ralph is gone, but as a high profile doctor to the stars, Marc can't hide from the truth forever.

It all started the previous summer. Marc, his wife, and their two beautiful teenage daughters agreed to spend a week at the Meier's extravagant summer home on the Mediterranean. Joined by Ralph and his striking wife Judith, her mother, and film director Stanley Forbes and his much younger girlfriend, the large group settles in for days of sunshine, wine tasting, and trips to the beach. But when a violent incident disrupts the idyll, darker motivations are revealed, and suddenly no one can be trusted. As the ultimate holiday soon turns into a nightmare, the circumstances surrounding Ralph's later death begin to reveal the disturbing reality behind that summer's tragedy.

Featuring the razor-sharp humor and acute psychological insight that made The Dinner an international phenomenon, Summer House with Swimming Pool is a controversial, thought-provoking novel that showcases Herman Koch at his finest.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Filled with unlikable characters and told by a narrator who seems none too trustworthy, Koch's second book to be published in America is in the same vein as the previous novel, The Dinner. In this new work, Ralph Meier, a famous actor, is dead, and his doctor Marc Schlosser may be at fault. Schlosser, the narrator of the novel, has a personal history with Meier and his family, a history full of sex, misogyny, and, ultimately, terrible violence. Actor Peter Berkrot perfectly captures Schlosser's malicious and self-centered humor in a fine performance. As with The Dinner, this novel is being touted by some as a summertime thriller. It is closer, however, to a horror story, one that will not be to everyone's taste. This is not the horror of monsters and demons; instead, the "things" we need to be most afraid of are the people around us. Verdict Recommended to fans of unsettling literary fiction. ["Koch continues to illuminate ways in which our Freudian unconscious takes dreadful revenge on the ego, often disproportionate to the perceived slight," read the starred review of the Hogarth: Crown hc, LJ 5/11/14.]-Wendy Galgan, St. Francis Coll., Brooklyn (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

In Koch's equally devious follow-up to The Dinner, civilization is once again only a thin cover-up for man's baser instincts. This time out, we meet Dr. Marc Schlosser, whose practice includes a new patient, veteran TV and stage actor Ralph Meier. At a party, Marc doesn't like the way Ralph looks at his wife, Caroline. So when Marc and his family are invited to spend part of their vacation at Ralph's summer house (with swimming pool), Marc reluctantly accepts. There, his family mingles with Ralph's family, as well as houseguests Stanley Forbes, a film director, and his much younger girlfriend. The air is rife with sexual tension as Ralph showers too much attention on Marc's underage daughter, Julia, and Marc toys with having an affair with Ralph's wife, Judith. Then tragedy strikes. One year later, through a confluence of events, Ralph is dead and Marc is implicated. Over the course of the novel, the truth about what really happened that summer is revealed. Although Koch, by his own admission, is not a mystery writer, he once again succeeds on that count without ever stinting on literary quality. And though it's a bit too long, make no mistake: very few real-world events will distract readers from finishing this addictive book in one or two sittings. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Just as he did in his bestseller, The Dinner (2013), Dutch novelist Koch tells a sinister tale through the eyes of a questionable narrator. Marc Schlosser is a physician whose reputation as a concerned and thoughtful listener has brought him high-end clientele. One patient is Ralph Meier, an imposing theater actor suffering from terminal cancer. Marc assists him in his suicide in the opening pages and then looks back to share the events leading up to Ralph's death, beginning when Marc and his wife, Carolyn, attend a performance of Ralph's. The actor and his wife, Judith, invite Marc, Carolyn, and their two daughters to spend some time at their summer house with them and their sons. Though Carolyn is put off by the way Ralph looks at her, Marc's attraction to Judith ultimately leads to the Schlossers accepting the Meiers' offer. The decision has devastating repercussions for both families. It's a slow burn, but Koch's deft and nuanced exploration of gender, guilt, and vengeance make his second novel to be translated into English an absorbing read.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

In this disquieting novel from Koch (The Dinner, 2013, etc.), sex, celebrity and medical ethics become inextricably tangled as a summer idyll goes nightmarishly wrong. Dr. Marc Schlosser is a Dutch physician to the stars. Creative types seek him out because he'll turn a blind eye to their excesses and is liberal with prescriptions. His cynicism ensures a booming practice until one of his patients, a famous actor named Ralph Meier, winds up dead. Cornered by the authorities and Ralph's furious widow, Judith, Marc looks back to the previous summer, building suspense as he tries to pinpoint when and how everything went so awry. Crucial is his decision to take his wife and beautiful blonde daughters, ages 11 and 13, to stay at Ralph's summer home on the Mediterranean. Judith and the couple's two boys are also there, along with Judith's mother and a leathery film director with a scandalously young girlfriend. Despite the usual group vacation tensionsmarital tiffs and glances that linger where they don't belongsundrenched days are spent frolicking beside the pool. Then Marc's eldest daughter goes missing. In the shocking aftermath, he's left trusting nobody and bent on revenge. There is plenty to unnerve here. Marc seems far from reliable as a narrator, never mind a doctor, and sociopathic instincts underpin his stinging social observations. Larger-than-life Ralph, meanwhile, is a man of such rapacious appetites that even a trip to the beach sees him emerge from the waves brandishing a giant octopus for the grill. He actually licks his lips when he gazes at Marc's wife. Most disturbingly of all, amid distinctly European attitudes to nudity, Koch probes the way in which menincluding those with daughterslook at young girls.A sly psychological thriller lurks within this pitch-dark comedy of manners, yet its ending manages to raise far more questions than it solves. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Herman Koch was born in Arnhem, Netherlands on September 5, 1953. He is an author and actor. His has written several novels and short story collections including De Voorbijganger, Eten Met Emma, Denken aan Bruce Kennedy, and Summer House with Swimming Pool. The Dinner won the Publieksprijs Prize in 2009. He is an actor for radio, television, and film. He co-created the long-running TV series Jiskefet, which ran from 1990 to 2005.

(Bowker Author Biography)