Lead Review

• Book: Summer House with Swimming Pool
• Location: Netherlands, The Mediterranean
• Author: Herman Koch

The book is a provocative and disturbing read, not least because of its subject matter. Some of the medical descriptions are downright stomach turning – for example when Marc lances an abscess on his own eye… told in graphic detail, or when a patient is subjected to an internal examination. But those are physical. There is also the psychological disturbance of Julia developing into a young woman and experimenting with her sexuality – and the way (both actual and imagined) that the older men around her engage with this. She ends up being raped on a beach. And Marc suspects both Ralf and Stanley – both of whom we think we know enough about to believe in the possibility. But was it one of them or someone else?

The beach/holiday is really evocative but it is unclear exactly where it is – judging by the ‘drive’ it is southern Europe, perhaps the Med. Take you guesses!

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