Viola, van de, Sandt, – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk Henley-on-Thames Thu, 19 Mar 2026 11:11:13 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/cropped-Bell-Background-Blue-32x32.png Viola, van de, Sandt, – The Bell Bookshop https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk 32 32 The Dinner Party https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/product/the-dinner-party/ Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.bellbookshop.co.uk/?post_type=product&p=52317 ‘A profoundly confronting novel which consumed me whole… tender, astonishing and unflinching’
Lucy Rose, author of the Sunday Times bestseller The Lamb

I remember everything that happened in those three minutes at the beginning of the evening, him and me in the kitchen. That, and what happened at the end: the knife, and what I did with it.

Franca left the Netherlands behind to start her new life in England with Andrew. Andrew, whose parents lived in South Kensington but had a flat their son could ‘borrow’ nearby. Andrew, an old-fashioned British gentleman, who encourages her not to work but to instead focus on her writing. Andrew who suggests a dinner party with his colleagues to celebrate their big upcoming launch. A dinner party that Franca must plan and shop and cook and clean for. A dinner party during a heatwave, when the fridge breaks, alcohol replaces water and an unexpected guest joins their ranks. A dinner party where everything she once was and everything she now is comes together and she feels like she might implode.

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