Well-crafted tale

Dear Mr. M: A Novel - Herman Koch

I enjoyed the newest book by Herman Koch very much. I think it’s his best yet.  It’s the story of Mr. M, a well-known author who wrote a successful novel based on the real-life possible murder of a high school teacher by two of his students.  Parts of the book are told by Mr. M, while parts of the books are told by his spooky neighbor, who has a tremendous interest in Mr. M and his family and doesn’t miss a second of watching them.

 

The author does a very good job of structuring this interesting story and building up the suspense. The sense of menace you feel with the first chapter just keeps growing and growing.  He kept me guessing all the way to the surprising end and I never saw it coming.  This is another of those books where I hesitate to say anything much about the plot as I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises ahead for its readers.  I’ll leave it up to the author to tell his tale.  Some reviewers are saying that they found the book to be confusing and hard to follow but I didn’t have any difficulty.  It’s one that you do have to pay close attention to, though, to keep the rather complicated plot straight in your mind.  I read it almost straight through without many breaks which I’m sure helped.  I was pretty much glued to it.

 

A well-crafted tale. Recommended.

 

I won a copy of this book in a LibraryThing giveaway.