The sixty-third impression of this successful novel has been brought out in a new striking and provocative design. Pasted round the spine is bright orange-red cloth but there is no spine title. The same red colour returns on the fore-edge, where author and title have been reversed out, and on the endpapers. The thick board covers are aquamarine with a bright red lobster on the front, rendered extra bright by spot UV varnish. Not only is the spine devoid of text, the front and back covers too are text-free. Thus the only clue that this is a copy of Het Diner by Herman Koch is the reversed-out title on the fore-edge – evidently the book is so well known that lobster and fore-edge text are deemed sufficient to allow it to find its way to the reader. The interior is good and neat, nothing unusual here. The white bar code sticker on the back is a complete eyesore: it wouldn’t be so bad if it were easily removed, but it is highly reluctant to let go. Only some white spirit…

As an object, the panel liked this book, praising the unusual solution of the coloured book block in combination with the spare, emblematic cover. An experience that makes a splash and a radical approach that succeeds in challenging the conventions of novel covers.