Golo Thomsen, a well-connected German officer and enthusiastic womanizer, falls for Hannah, who recently arrived to join her husband, Paul Doll, the commandant of a concentration camp. Golo and Paul take turns narrating with a Polish prisoner named Szmul. Forced into the role of camp undertaker in exchange for better rations, Szmul clings to the blind hope of delaying his own fate as he bears witness to the horrors surrounding him. In different ways, each narrator reveals the texture of everyday life in Nazi Germany while satirizing the profligate excesses among those in its highest ranks.
Alarmed by an impending military collapse and convinced his wife is having an affair, Paul becomes more paranoid and more misguided in his ambitions. He terrorizes Szmul and forces him into a scheme to exact revenge on Hannah, who cannot hide her horrified contempt. Golo plays the part of an impeccable Nazi officer and keeps his personal reactions publicly concealed, revealing them only through the sardonic bite of his observations and in small, revealing descriptions. Szmul's heartbreaking sections lack any satirical edge. He dreams of his wife and children. He accepts the moral compromises he's made to stay alive. He hopes that, at the end, he will not have lost his urge to kill.
In his afterword, Amis (Money) tackles the question of how to explain Nazi sympathizers--and whether explanation is even possible in the face of their incomprehensible hatred. The Zone of Interest is mordant and passionate, clearly conveying the irrationality of hate. It loses none of its art despite using art to drive an ethical argument. It is Amis at his finest. --Jeanette Zwart, freelance writer and reviewer