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The Ditch

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The Ditch

By: Herman Koch
Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
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About this listen

The bracing and inventive new novel of suspicions and secrecy from Herman Koch, the New York Times best-selling author of The Dinner.

When Robert Walter, popular mayor of Amsterdam, sees his wife toss her head back with laughter while chatting to one of his aldermen at a New Year’s reception, he immediately suspects the worst. Despite their long and happy marriage, Robert is convinced that Sylvia is cheating on him – with the respectable alderman who is dedicated to the environment, no less. The man who wants to spoil the capital’s skyline with wind turbines.

The New Year’s reception marks the end of the 'happy family' era that the mayor has enjoyed for so long. His wife and their daughter, Diana, however, are not aware of his suspicions and carry on as usual. Robert starts spending a lot of time and energy 'behaving normally.' Naturally, his normal behaviour is far more suspicious. Normally Robert’s not really present when he’s at home – he’s preoccupied with his phone, the newspapers and his own thoughts. But now Robert is so sure he’ll miss the clues if he doesn’t pay attention that he starts to be almost alarmingly attentive and interested – ultimately losing himself in increasingly panicked and paranoid trains of thought.

Written with Herman Koch’s trademark originality, playfulness and edge, The Ditch is a wildly clever - and deeply familiar - story of a man whose sadistic skill for undermining himself and his marriage comes to cost him nearly everything.

©2019 Herman Koch (P)2020 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Fiction Literary Fiction Political Marriage Happiness

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Oh my GOD can he be more boring.

Look I love Herman Koch books and I’ve been waiting for months for this to arrive. Well what a waste of a wait. He just goes on and on and on. THe narrator is a dreary voice telling a dreary story.
In the end I couldn’t care and haven’t even finished it oh I might flip through the last chapters. But don’t think I can be bothered. What a terrible disappointment. Feel like crying.
I suggest you DONT BOTHER

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That's 10 hours I will never get back

What a mess. I don't think he actually finished the book, or are we supposed to make up the rest ourselves?

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