--- product_id: 61005557 title: "Summer House with Swimming Pool" brand: "herman koch" price: "£9.51" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 3 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/61005557-summer-house-with-swimming-pool store_origin: GB region: United Kingdom --- # Summer House with Swimming Pool **Brand:** herman koch **Price:** £9.51 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Summer House with Swimming Pool by herman koch - **How much does it cost?** £9.51 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/61005557-summer-house-with-swimming-pool) ## Best For - herman koch enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted herman koch brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Full description not available ## Images ![Summer House with Swimming Pool - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Zn6Utrf8L.jpg) ![Summer House with Swimming Pool - Image 2](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dgapKANOL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Horrible people make compelling reading! *by S***B on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 October 2018* Over the past week, I've read The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool back to back, and it was quite an intense experience. As I said in my review of The Dinner, the characters in this book are larger than life (or in this case, more horrible than life), and the book is satirical, but it explores several "taboos" of modern society. It was particularly apt to read it now, following the exposure of certain sex scandals in the entertainment industry - surely the characters of Stanley, the film producer, and his teenage girlfriend Emmanuelle, must have been taken from that source.The narrator is Marc, a doctor, who despises his rich patients, but has found a way to make money out of them without expending too much energy. Marc has an attractive wife, Caroline, and two vapid daughters, Julia and Lisa. One of Marc's patients, Ralph Maier, an actor, invites Marc and his family to their holiday home, and against his better judgement (or is it?), Marc winds up there. Caroline is pursued by Ralph, and Marc amuses himself with Ralph's wife, Judith, who seems to be up for a dalliance. Marc considers himself a "charming" man, although again I suspect this concept is satirical - presumably men like Marc must consider themselves charming and irresistible to women. Julia, the older daughter, has a mild relationship with one of Ralph's sons. Marc professes to love his daughters, and is protective of them, but as the book unfolds, I started to wonder if this was love, or possession. Marc is quite happy to look lustfully at other men's daughters, and there is a rather disturbing scene later in the book where Marc's relationship with Julia seems just a little closer, for a father and teenage daughter, than I'm comfortable with.Ralph is Marc's patient, and he dies under Marc's care. Marc is under investigation for medical negligence, but the suspicion in the mind of the reader is that he may have committed murder. At the end of the book, Marc and his family decamp to the USA, to avoid Marc's malpractice investigation and to live with Stanley, who is in the process of setting up Julia and Lisa as "models". Marc seems fine with this - apparently Julia has now graduated to womanhood, and can be exploited by Stanley and his ilk in the same way as other women are.I love Herman Koch's writing. He's a ruthless observer of human nature, and he doesn't spare the reader. You're left feeling very exposed - could YOU be as bad as these characters if the situation arose? Maybe we're all just a step away! ### ⭐⭐ Starts so well, ends so badly I can't recommend it- total shaggy dog story. *by L***Y on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 May 2020* This novel has a truly excellent scabrous start balanced between awareness that our anti-hero narrator has effectively committed murder and his extremely darkly funny and misanthropic views on the human existence. Halfway through, the plot started getting bogged down and the narrator's musings ditto, but I still kept turning the pages, keen to get to the end. I still had hopes for a strong finish - but very annoyingly, it not only fizzled out but entirely undercut the narrator's motives for murder. So be warned that this is a shaggy dog story. It's a good read but will make you want to throw it across the room at the end.Additionally, it's very clear as it progresses that the author is much, much older than his characters and has very sexist ideas - do either of the wives have jobs? We hear about the husbands' incessantly! No mother of an 11 or 13 year-old girls would let them play "Miss Wet T-Shirt" (!!) with older boys, for instance. And it gets much worse. Anyone against the sexualising of tween and barely-teen girls should avoid this as if it were the plague. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Holiday from Hell *by B***G on Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 March 2017* I've worked for most of my life with Dutch colleagues and I love their directness, their lack of guile and their willingness to simply NOT pretend to be something they are not. That sense of Dutchness really comes through in Herman Koch's book 'Summer House with Swimming Pool' in which a thoroughly unpleasant GP meets a totally detestable veteran actor and somehow manages to end up sharing a holiday home with both their families in an attempt to sleep with his patient's wife.There's a fashion at the moment for books with unlikable heroes and SHwSP definitely feeds on that fashion. Marc, the doctor, is openly lazy and disinterested in his privileged clients but has learned how to con them into thinking he's a really good doctor just by giving them longer appointments. Much of those appointments are spent with Marc musing over just how revolting the bodies of his clients are. This book goes into a degree of graphic anatomical grossness that will disturb many readers but is essential to establishing just how unpleasant Marc is.His client has just died at the beginning of the book - so no spoilers there. The book then takes us on a disturbing journey, unlayering the complexities of how the man came to die. Most readers will agree that the actor's death is no great loss. Interestingly - and in some ways similarly to the characters in Koch's better known novel 'The Dinner', there is a common thread of just how far people will go to protect their children.If you need a hero don't buy this book. If you like your protagonists warts and all (and don't mind him musing on where those warts might be) then it could be perfect --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/61005557-summer-house-with-swimming-pool](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/61005557-summer-house-with-swimming-pool) --- *Product available on Desertcart United Kingdom* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-16*