The Dinner by Herman Koch

In The Dinner by Herman Koch, we first meet the narrator Paul as he waits patiently for his brother to arrive for dinner at an upscale restaurant in Amsterdam.  It is one of those obligatory family get-togethers that neither Paul nor his wife Claire wants to attend but must because, there's something Paul's brother, Serge, wants to discuss.

Serge is a rising political star, a shoo-in to be elected the next prime minister, and when he arrives at the restaurant with his long-suffering wife, Babette, it is with all the pompous fuss and fake smiles Paul has learned to expect and disdain.

The family settles down to a lovely meal, but underneath the veneer of polite small talk, it's clear that something is wrong.  It turns out that Paul's son Michel and Serge's sons Beau and Rick are implicated in a violent act caught on tape. The boys haven't been identified yet by the police, but it's only a matter of time.  So with Serge's political career and the boys' futures hanging in the balance, the brothers and their wives have met to discuss what to do.

Initially Paul appears to be a little eccentric, a little condescending, with maybe a few personality tics, but nothing alarming.  But as the meal progresses we slowly realize that Paul's quirks are more than tics and no one at the table is who they first appeared to be.  As the dinner progresses so does our dawning sense of horror.  

Wonderfully creepy and exceptionally disturbing,  The Dinner is a five-star delight.