The American Book Center and Starbucks the Bank are joining forces, introducing the Starbucks Book Club.

Starbucks The Bank:
“Starbucks The Bank in Amsterdam is one of the biggest and most beautifully designed Starbucks I have seen so far (and I’ve seen quite a few over the years, all over the world). This is just a great place to find a quiet spot to read the book or magazine you have just bought at ABC and enjoy a cup of something hot.”— Karin, Marketing Manager ABC

ABC and Starbucks joining forces:
The Bank opened last year on the Rembrandtplein in Amsterdam and wants to be more than just another Starbucks place, so store manager Jeroen Bol decided to get in touch with the American Book Center, introducing his Starbucks Book Club idea. After a good brainstorm session the idea of an open English Language book club took shape.

The first Starbucks Book Club selection, the international bestseller The Dinner by Herman Koch, will be introduced on April 8 and can be bought at Starbucks The Bank and at The American Book Center.

If you buy a copy of The Dinner you will get a free tall beverage at The Bank upon showing your copy of The Dinner and handing in the original (ABC) receipt. Every time you come back to the bank between April 8th and May 17th, show your personal copy of The Dinner and you’ll receive an additional €0.30 discount on your cuppa!
Don’t you think it will be great fun to see and meet other people at The Bank reading the same book?

Herman Koch at The Bank
ABC and Starbucks are very happy to announce that on Friday, May 17th at 19.00 hrs, author Herman Koch will come to The Bank to discuss The Dinner. Herman will read, sign and answer reader questions about The Dinner to conclude the first Starbucks Book Club selection.

About Herman Koch
Herman Koch is a best-selling novelist. In previous years he was also an actor, comedian and satirist.  Published in 1989, Herman Koch’s first novel, Red Ons, Maria Montenelli, was a mixture of confession and tirade in the style of J.D. Salinger, about a victim of a Montessori education living in the swagger of South Amsterdam. Shortly afterwards he began writing and acting in the iconic comedy sketch show, Jiskefet, a precursor of shows like Little Britain. It ran for fifteen years.

In later novels, he developed his unique form of ironic realism and tackled topical themes. His central characters are burdened by their empty existence, they feel unjustly treated and search for a way out, often vicariously, through other people’s stories. After six well-received novels, Koch’s seventh, a tragi-comedy entitled The Dinner broke new ground and paved the way to international acclaim. His most recent novel, Zomerhuis met Zwembad, has also been widely translated.

About the book

“A European Gone Girl.” –The Wall Street Journal

An internationally bestselling phenomenon: the darkly suspenseful, highly controversial tale of two families struggling to make the hardest decision of their lives — all over the course of one meal.

It’s a summer’s evening in Amsterdam, and two couples meet at a fashionable restaurant for dinner. Between mouthfuls of food and over the polite scrapings of cutlery, the conversation remains a gentle hum of polite discourse — the banality of work, the triviality of the holidays. But behind the empty words, terrible things need to be said, and with every forced smile and every new course, the knives are being sharpened.
Each couple has a fifteen-year-old son. The two boys are united by their accountability for a single horrific act; an act that has triggered a police investigation and shattered the comfortable, insulated worlds of their families. As the dinner reaches its culinary climax, the conversation finally touches on their children. As civility and friendship disintegrate, each couple show just how far they are prepared to go to protect those they love.
Tautly written, incredibly gripping, and told by an unforgettable narrator, The Dinner promises to be the topic of countless dinner party debates. Skewering everything from parenting values to pretentious menus to political convictions, this novel reveals the dark side of genteel society and asks what each of us would do in the face of unimaginable tragedy.