Mr M is being watched. As a famous writer, he is no stranger to the limelight, although interest in his work has been dwindling of late. His print runs are smaller than they used to be, and so are the crowds at his bookshop signings. But there is someone still interested in Mr M and keeping an extremely close eye on him—someone whose own story bears more than a passing resemblance to the plot of Mr M's bestselling thriller, in which a teacher has an affair with a student, only to be brutally murdered by the girl and her teenage boyfriend. In Mr M's book, the body is never found—but in real life, bodies have an awkward habit of turning up.
Herman Koch was born in 1953. He is an actor, screenwriter and columnist in the Netherlands, and has written a number of satirical novels including Summer House with Swimming Pool and The Dinner, which spent a year on the New York Times bestseller list and sold more than 2.5 million copies worldwide. The Dinner has been translated into forty languages, and an English-language film adaptation is in production.
'Herman Koch is rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers. His three novels, taken together, are like a killer EP where every track kicks ass.' Stephen King
'A whip-smart murder mystery.' Marie Claire
'Like all of Koch's novels, Dear Mr M works ultimately through the deliberate withholding of information: it is a book, like all his books, with a final and magnificent twist.' Guardian
'A riveting but disturbing literary thriller...Delicately told, in spare, haunting prose, there are echoes of Stephen King's Misery, but this is even more subtle, with a denouement to send shivers down the spine.' Daily Mail
'Koch cleverly lays out the pieces of his puzzle, letting first one pattern and then another emerge, and leaving the final piece in reserve until the last few pages. His sardonic sense of humour and dark perspective on human failings give the novel a greater, more satisfying depth than the usual thriller.' Publishers Weekly
'Flawlessly translated from the original Dutch by Sam Garrett, this novel is Koch's best yet. A brilliant read!' BookMooch
'Ultimately this is a story about culpability, one with a shocking and unpredictable resolution. A rich, deliberate and engaging thriller worth more than one read.' Newtown Review of Books
