Easy Living

Tom Sanders is a celebrated writer of self-help books. His bestsellers “Crime Without Frontiers” and “Easy Living” have sold more than forty million copies worldwide. He leads an extremely comfortable life, is happily married to Julia, and has two grown-up sons, the youngest of whom, Stefan, is the apple of his eye. Suddenly, during a birthday party for Julia, their daughter-in-law Hanna – of whom Tom and Julia are not particularly fond – turns up at the door. Sobbing, she says that Stefan has beaten her and that this is not the first time. Should Tom tackle his favourite son about his behaviour? Or would it perhaps be better to put the advice from his self-help books into practice, such as his famous precept ‘Try not to solve problems by thinking about them; often they are sooner solved by not thinking about them’?

‘From the second line, “You must have heard of me”, you wish him the worst.’ de Volkskrant

‘Should Tom Sanders disregard that advice? Or should he tackle his son about his behaviour? That is the central dilemma in Easy Living, and Koch gets a devilish kick out of making Tom Sanders vacillate between these two options, and gets an even greater kick out of pushing him into a corner.’ Parool

‘The reader soon starts to hope for the know-it-all’s downfall, but Koch takes his time to satisfy that desire.’ de Volkskrant

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The Herman Koch collection.

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‘Herman Koch shows brilliantly how you can see things that might not be there at all, how your imagination can run away with you. The Ditch is an ode to the imagination.’ **** Het Parool

‘Tense, ingeniously constructed novel by a chuckling writer.’ ZIN

‘A feast of clarity. Herman Koch responds with stunning irony, scope and narrative efficiency.’ El Periódico (Spain)

‘Buy [Summer House with Swimming Pool] immediately.' ***** DE STANDAARD

‘An ingeniously plotted story. Odessa Star reads like a thriller.’ TROUW

‘Koch has put it all ingeniously together. His humour is as restrained as his style. A powerful novel, without cannonballs whizzing past your ears. And yet the ending will keep ringing in your head long after you have finished reading it.’ Het Parool

‘A novel both hilarious and poignant that turns everything on its head so often that you end up not knowing which is which: fiction or reality.’ GPD

‘We think Koch is a great writer. A fantastic anthropologist. He knows our quirks and our weaknesses, our desires and our fears, our poses and our hypocrisy. He has an eagle eye for the small, all-revealing gesture. He has the gift of plain language and, perhaps more importantly, the talent to capture the madhouse he believes the world to be and the pointlessness that he sees all around him in prose that almost always surprises and, yes, very often makes you laugh. That is pretty unique.’ De Standaard

'Herman Koch's satirical masterpiece Save Us, Maria Montanelli should be compulsory reading in all schools.' De Volkskrant

Koch commands his metier with an effortless superiority. De Volkskrant

Herman Koch slaat verrassend toe in bijtende roman. Elsevier