Dear Mr. M by Herman Koch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Herman Koch has a gift for getting a reader inside the head of flawed and unlikable humans in a mesmerizing way. Who is the most unlikable in Dear Mr. M? The voyeur neighbor who spies on the declining author and his family? Or that declining author, who finds moral equivalency in collaboration and resistance during war, and who marries a star-struck high school student 40 years his junior? Or maybe the young wife, who marries for fame. Intertwine these characters with the past ones — the teacher who sleeps with his student and then stalks her when she breaks it off, or those students who delight in tormenting people with cruel pranks.
All of these characters intertwine when the elderly author writes a mystery thriller loosely based on a true incident of a teacher who disappears and the students who are accused of murdering him. The title of his novel is Payback and as you reach the end of Dear Mr. M, you realize how perfect that title is.
Brilliant and addictive. Herman Koch’s best novel yet.
Thank you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read this book.
