Review: The Ditch by Herman Koch

Robert Walter’s carefully constructed life is slowly crumbling around him. Despite being the mayor of Amsterdam, and popular in his city, Robert can’t help but suspect that his wife is having an affair with one of his colleagues. Though he has no proof or solid reason for the belief, when it comes to his wife, the mayor has been fostering silent inadequacies and jealousies for many years. It all started when they met, as Robert and his good-looking friend travelled across Europe. Surprisingly, unlike every other girl they’d encountered, she seemed to prefer Robert to his devilishly handsome friend, and he’s never figured out why. Years later, his insecurities suddenly flair to life when he sees her laughing with another man.

To make matters worse, Robert’s aging parents have just revealed that they plan to leave mortality behind them in a macabre pact, while a journalist has come into the possession of damning photos from his youth. It’s a bit of a shitstorm, and Robert is no sailor.

As he becomes more convinced of the conspiracies around him, his relationships and job suffer, cruelly morphing into a sick sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that leads Robert to wonder if he had been blind his whole life, only to really see for the first time, or if he’s finally going mad.

It seems impossible to think that a writer could take a mundane story into something sinister, conspiratorial and dramatic, but that is precisely what Herman Kock has made of Robert Walter’s story, and that, dear readers, is talent. The Ditch not only fits into the niche of the male mid-life crisis, but it reinvents it. Robert’s crisis of faith is about more than sex or politics or wealth – it is an animal need to realise one’s real place in the world, and to finally see the line between fiction and fantasy that can upend a life.

Littered with dry humor, wit and poignant social commentary, The Ditch is a true literary feast that is both entertaining and enlightening. It affords a curated glance into a world that proves that the world remains full of stories, even hidden behind the mundane, if only we can tell them well enough. Herman Koch has a unique talent to tell any story, and to do it brilliantly.

The Ditch by Herman Koch is published by Picador, an imprint of Pan Macmillan.