Dear Mr M.

The once celebrated writer M. had his greatest success with a novel about the notorious disappearance of Jan Landzaat. This history teacher disappeared after a brief affair with a stunning pupil, and was last seen at the holiday cottage where she was staying with her new boyfriend. The novel was a bestseller and marked M.’s international breakthrough, but now, at the end of his career, he is fading increasingly into obscurity. But not when it comes to his mysterious downstairs neighbour, who keeps a close eye on M. What does he have to do with the disappearance case?

From various perspectives, Herman Koch tells the intriguing story of a writer in decline, a teenage couple in love and a missing teacher. Thanks to the bestseller, their fate seems to be linked forever. Dear Mr M. is a magnificent novel about jealousy and envy, friendship and love. With his world-renowned sharp eye, Herman Koch once again spares nothing and no one.

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‘Dear Mr M. comes very close to perfection.’***** DE STANDAARD

‘It is not just a page-turner, there are also plenty of belly laughs to be had.’ –**** HET PAROOL

‘Koch demonstrates his great narrative talent.’DE TELEGRAAF

‘Tense, ingeniously constructed novel by a chuckling writer.’ZIN

‘The writing is crystal clear and unpretentious, typically Koch!’**** NRC HANDELSBLAD

‘Dear Mr M. fulfills the promise of a long-awaited new Koch after only a few pages.’VRIJ NEDERLAND

‘Koch has mastered all the tricks. He is the master of variety, balance and subtle cliff-hangers. [...] Plot-driven is an understatement: Koch cracks the whip to the very end.’BOEK

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‘Herman Koch shows brilliantly how you can see things that might not be there at all, how your imagination can run away with you. The Ditch is an ode to the imagination.’ **** Het Parool

‘The writing is crystal clear and unpretentious, typically Koch!’ **** NRC HANDELSBLAD

‘A groundbreaking book, clever and important. It is an ext remely funny, ‘shake awake’ book, that we probably need more than we’d like to know. I hope that there will be more translations of Herman Koch’s books. It will be a pleasure.’ Nordjyske (Denmark)

‘Summer House with Swimming Pool is a story ingeniously told, in which Koch turns the spotlight of his imagination in deliciously cynical fashion on the world of medicine and of Famous Dutch People.’ HET PAROOL

‘An ingeniously plotted story. Odessa Star reads like a thriller.’ TROUW

‘War at Last is a subtle parody of all post-war war literature.’ de Volkskrant

‘Thinking of Bruce Kennedy shows us Koch at his best.’ Vrij Nederland

‘A novel both hilarious and poignant that turns everything on its head so often that you end up not knowing which is which: fiction or reality.’ GPD

‘We think Koch is a great writer. A fantastic anthropologist. He knows our quirks and our weaknesses, our desires and our fears, our poses and our hypocrisy. He has an eagle eye for the small, all-revealing gesture. He has the gift of plain language and, perhaps more importantly, the talent to capture the madhouse he believes the world to be and the pointlessness that he sees all around him in prose that almost always surprises and, yes, very often makes you laugh. That is pretty unique.’ De Standaard

‘The reader soon starts to hope for the know-it-all’s downfall, but Koch takes his time to satisfy that desire.’ de Volkskrant

'An incredible book. Enjoyably recognisable, and well written.' Sevendays

Even more than a book about memories, this is a book about lost memories and that is the thing that makes this one so special. Trouw

Een geslaagde roman over de complexe menselijke natuur. Margriet