Writersblog

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

The Dutch programme at the International Book Fair in Beijing was cunn... >>> read more

Henk Pröpper

Henk Pröpper, Director Dutch Foundation for Literature

In two weeks’ time, the official opening of one of the largest b... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

Dear Dutch publishers. The book fair is over. Perhaps you’ll now... >>> read more

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, Dutch illustrators

The days are full and long. We are incessantly bombarded with impressi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

Arriving on the stand on the first day, I’d asked a Chinese visi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

Big excitement today since we were finally meeting with Songyu from Fl... >>> read more

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

Ingrid and Dieter Schubert, Dutch illustrators

It’s now the third day, and the first one with plenty of sun. Un... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

What a great opportunity to learn about the Dutch literature for Chine... >>> read more

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

A duck flies to and fro over the vast expanses of world ocean, despera... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

‘In the era of browsing, we provide reading.’ - Slogan see... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The jewel in the crown of our collection of Arbeiderspers titles publi... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The Chinese publishers I have met during the course of my career, the ... >>> read more

Salomon Kroonenberg

Salomon Kroonenberg, Dutch writer

I have so far never been to a book fair. Nor do I know what to imagine... >>> read more

Kai Kang

Kai Kang, Journalist China Reading Weekly

Since 2006, I began writing about the Netherlands’ performance a... >>> read more

Henk Pröpper

Henk Pröpper, Director Dutch Foundation for Literature

Now that the fair is just round the corner, this is perhaps the moment... >>> read more

Michele Hutchison

Michele Hutchison, Editor De Arbeiderspers

The traffic in Beijing is horrendous, I’m sure the other blogger... >>> read more

Thomas Möhlmann

Thomas Möhlmann, Staff member Dutch Foundation for Literature

What an evening the poets and the approximately 200 onlookers present ... >>> read more


Herman Koch - Summerhouse with Swimming Pool

Herman Koch - Summerhouse with Swimming Pool

Doctors are unassailable. Their patients, with all their secrets, are delivered up to them body and soul. Marc Schlosser, the central character in Herman Koch’s Summerhouse with Swimming Pool, is a family doctor to the rich and famous, and behind his mask of solicitude a heartless cynic.

He despises his patients, whom he observes with detachment, feigning concern. He has not taken his profession seriously for many years, having accepted without protest that he is a cog in the bureaucracy of the healthcare system, where costs, profits and statistics are all that matter.

When he finds his honour as a husband and father in jeopardy, however, he realizes he has power over life and death. Who could do anything to him should one of his patients die? He has no respect for the Medical Disciplinary Board, which sure enough puts the case on the back burner.

Like Koch’s previous much-praised bestseller The Dinner, Summerhouse with Swimming Pool is a contemporary novel of manners with the plot of a thriller, its glamorous setting depicted with biting humour. The ethical questions Koch raises stay with the reader for a long time.

Biography

Herman Koch has met with equal success as a writer and as an actor. Ever since his debut as a novelist in 1989 with Save Us, Maria Montanelli his books have been characterized by an ironical view of the middle classes. He has also worked as a scriptwriter and actor on absurdist television comedy programmes. His seventh novel, The Dinner (2009), brought him international fame and a place at number six on the list of bestselling European novels. Summerhouse with Swimming Pool (2011) has met with jubilant reviews, becoming a bestseller.

Quotes

  • ‘Extremely suspenseful, skilfully written, surprising, hilarious, captures our age.’ - Vrij Nederland