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Dear Mr. M: A Novel
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Random House Publishing Group 2016
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Description
The tour-de-force, hair-raising new novel from Herman Koch, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool
 
Once a celebrated writer, M had his greatest success with a suspense novel based on a real-life disappearance. It told the story of a history teacher who went missing one winter after having a brief affair with a beautiful student of his. The teacher was never found. Upon publication, M's novel was a runaway bestseller, one that marked his international breakthrough.
 
That was years ago, and now M's career is fading. But not when it comes to his bizarre, seemingly timid neighbor who keeps a close eye on him and his wife. Why?
 
From alternating points of view, where no one is to be trusted, Herman Koch weaves together an intricate tale of a writer in decline, a teenage couple in love, a missing teacher, and a single book that entwines all of their fates. Thanks to M's novel, supposedly a work of fiction, everyone seems to be linked forever, until something unexpected spins the "story" off its rails.
 
With ever increasing tension, his signature sardonic wit and world-renowned sharp eye for human failings, Herman Koch once again spares nothing and no one in his gripping new novel, a barbed performance that suspends readers in the mysterious space between fact and fiction.
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Street Date:
09/06/2016
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781101903339
ASIN:
B019B6WU3I
Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

Herman Koch. (2016). Dear Mr. M: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Herman Koch. 2016. Dear Mr. M: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Herman Koch, Dear Mr. M: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2016.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Herman Koch. Dear Mr. M: A Novel. Random House Publishing Group, 2016.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
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Anne Arundel County Public Library11
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Grouped Work ID:
5e8f8556-aa07-6e29-8a9f-93e95e464802
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Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Apr 07, 2017 17:35:37
Date Updated:
Dec 06, 2020 04:23:44
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 24, 2024 04:29:51
Last Metadata Change:
Feb 12, 2024 20:14:32
Last Availability Check:
Mar 24, 2024 04:29:53
Last Availability Change:
Jun 26, 2023 21:31:08
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
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Dear Mr. M
fullDescription
The tour-de-force, hair-raising new novel from Herman Koch, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool
 
Once a celebrated writer, M had his greatest success with a suspense novel based on a real-life disappearance. It told the story of a history teacher who went missing one winter after having a brief affair with a beautiful student of his. The teacher was never found. Upon publication, M's novel was a runaway bestseller, one that marked his international breakthrough.
 
That was years ago, and now M's career is fading. But not when it comes to his bizarre, seemingly timid neighbor who keeps a close eye on him and his wife. Why?
 
From alternating points of view, where no one is to be trusted, Herman Koch weaves together an intricate tale of a writer in decline, a teenage couple in love, a missing teacher, and a single book that entwines all of their fates. Thanks to M's novel, supposedly a work of fiction, everyone seems to be linked forever, until something unexpected spins the "story" off its rails.
 
With ever increasing tension, his signature sardonic wit and world-renowned sharp eye for human failings, Herman Koch once again spares nothing and no one in his gripping new novel, a barbed performance that suspends readers in the mysterious space between fact and fiction.
reviews
      • premium: False
      • source: David Ulin, The Washington Post
      • content: "An exhilarating and unpredictable novel...[it] opens before us like a set of nesting dolls, each narrative turn revealing another... We see the territory 'Dear Mr. M' occupies, the middle ground between literature and life, intent and open-endedness, making the book a darkly comic meditation on creativity and the limits of creativity, on the art of fiction and its discontents."
      • premium: False
      • source: Library Journal (starred review)
      • content: "Perfect for fans of Koch's previous best sellers, The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool, and of the sociopathic story line in fiction."
      • premium: False
      • source: The Charlotte Observer
      • content: "...a psychologically sophisticated thriller..."
      • premium: False
      • source: Booklist
      • content: "[a] totally engrossing blend of thriller and literary fiction will take you into that Twilight Zone 'middle ground between light and shadow' and hold you there for awhile afterward... It requires your complete attention, but when you give it, you will be absorbed by the clever prose...Dear Mr. M is bound to find a strong audience, especially among fans of Lionel Shriver and Megan Abbott."
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        July 25, 2016
        The Dutch author of The Dinner keeps the reader pleasantly off balance in a tale about a fading novelist and the crime that inspired the book that brought him fame. At first, the aging Mr. M, who lives with his “lovely, young” and “self-effacing” wife and three-year-old daughter, is observed only through the cool eyes of his younger downstairs neighbor, whom M consistently fails to recognize outside of the apartment building. Later, the misanthropic M gets his own chapters in the spotlight as he considers disposing of the middle-aged housewives attending a library book-signing or engages in fisticuffs with a rival at an authors’ dinner. Other characters taking their moment in the spotlight include M’s wife, Ana, and the two young inspirations for M’s novel, Herman and Laura, who may or may not have done away with their high school history teacher. All have motives and feelings that are more twisted than one first suspects. 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 humor and dark perspective on human failings give the novel a greater, more satisfying depth than the usual thriller.

      • premium: True
      • source: Kirkus
      • content:

        July 1, 2016
        A man contemplates getting back at the novelist who exploited his life in fiction.Koch's third novel translated into English (Summer House with Swimming Pool, 2015, etc.) is partly a satire of the petty grievances of the literary world, partly a vision of sociopathic cruelty, though ultimately a little too much of both. The "Mr. M" of the title has had a long career writing novels that have garnered heaps of acclaim but modest sales--with the exception of Payback, his bestselling fictionalization of a much-discussed news story about a pair of teens who were accused of killing a teacher who'd had an affair with one of them. Herman, one of the students allegedly involved, hasn't been able to let go of the experience decades later; indeed, he lives in the same building as the writer, and as M makes the publicity rounds for a new novel, Herman is increasingly invasive of his personal space, stalking his wife and posing as a journalist to ask some pointed questions of him. Koch (via Garrett's translation) does a fine job of capturing Herman's arrogant, narcissistic swagger ("I have certain plans for you..."; "Who are you trying to impress...?"), but he wisely pivots away from Herman's narration to include multiple perspectives--Mr. M, the troubled teacher, and the classmates who witnessed Herman's high school antics. (He enjoyed taunting a classmate whose mother was dying, for instance.) Koch suggests that in some ways Herman and M are similar--both exploit others' pasts, have mean streaks (M fantasizes about mass-murdering his readers), and have troubled pasts to cover up. But that argument isn't wholly persuasive--Herman's adolescence was crueler--and the layering of Herman's back story overwhelms the core mystery story of what truly happened with that teacher. Koch is consistently attuned to our hidden foibles and fakery, which makes for deliberately discomfiting reading. Sleeker writing would enhance its impact.

        COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

      • premium: True
      • source: Booklist
      • content:

        August 1, 2016
        Trust no one. Certainly not the narratorsthis story is told from alternating points of viewand perhaps not even yourself. Koch's totally engrossing blend of thriller and literary fiction will take you into that Twilight Zone middle ground between light and shadow and hold you there for awhile afterward. There is much examination of the writing process, artistic license, and literary merit built into the story of a writer whose greatest success came with a thriller based on a real-life disappearance. The author known to us merely as M now finds his career in decline, and he seems to have become the obsession of his bizarre downstairs neighbor. You have to really like this kind of thingit is not the kind of story that you can read on and off. It requires your complete attention, but when you give it, you will be absorbed by the clever prose. Based on the phenomenal success of the Amsterdam author's previous novels, especially The Dinner (2013), Dear Mr. M is bound to find a strong audience, especially amongfans of Lionel Shriver and Megan Abbott.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        Starred review from September 1, 2016

        This third novel to be translated into English from Koch's native Dutch may change the way readers think about the publishing realm forever. The main protagonist, "H," begins the tale by writing a letter to an author, referred to as Mr. M. In this letter, H lets Mr. M know that H is a neighbor and wishes to interview him. He then describes, in haunting detail, Mr. M's movements and those of his much younger wife and three-year-old daughter. The story then continues from the perspective of different characters. Forty years ago, Mr. M wrote a book called Payback, which he based loosely on a true event involving two high schoolers who apparently killed their teacher at a vacation town, although a body was never recovered. As Koch unfolds events up to the present, he has his characters use similar phrases and descriptions to convey their sense of connection, giving the entire narrative coherence. VERDICT Perfect for fans of Koch's previous best sellers, The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool, and of the sociopathic story line in fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

        Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        April 15, 2016

        After blasting scathingly onto the American scene with The Dinner and then Summer House with Swimming Pool, Koch returns with a high-end shocker about M, himself the author of a high-end shocker but now all washed up. Why does his deferential neighbor seem almost creepily interested in him? With a 100,000-copy first printing.

        Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

      • premium: True
      • source: Library Journal
      • content:

        September 1, 2016

        This third novel to be translated into English from Koch's native Dutch may change the way readers think about the publishing realm forever. The main protagonist, "H," begins the tale by writing a letter to an author, referred to as Mr. M. In this letter, H lets Mr. M know that H is a neighbor and wishes to interview him. He then describes, in haunting detail, Mr. M's movements and those of his much younger wife and three-year-old daughter. The story then continues from the perspective of different characters. Forty years ago, Mr. M wrote a book called Payback, which he based loosely on a true event involving two high schoolers who apparently killed their teacher at a vacation town, although a body was never recovered. As Koch unfolds events up to the present, he has his characters use similar phrases and descriptions to convey their sense of connection, giving the entire narrative coherence. VERDICT Perfect for fans of Koch's previous best sellers, The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool, and of the sociopathic story line in fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/16.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

        Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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The tour-de-force, hair-raising new novel from Herman Koch, the New York Times bestselling author of The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool
 
Once a celebrated writer, M had his greatest success with a suspense novel based on a real-life disappearance. It told the story of a history teacher who went missing one winter after having a brief affair with a beautiful student of his. The teacher was never found. Upon publication, M's novel was a runaway bestseller, one that marked his international breakthrough.
 
That was years ago, and now M's career is fading. But not when it comes to his bizarre, seemingly timid neighbor who keeps a close eye on him and his wife. Why?
 
From alternating points of view, where no one is to be trusted, Herman Koch weaves together an intricate tale of a writer in decline, a teenage couple in love, a missing teacher, and a single book that entwines all of their fates. Thanks to M's...
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