Amis, Martin - The Zone of Interest (Knopf, 2014)

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • From one the most virtuosic authors in the English language: a powerful novel, written with urgency and moral force, that explores life — and love—among the Nazi bureaucrats of Auschwitz. • SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

"A masterpiece.... Profound, powerful and morally urgent.... A benchmark for what serious literature can achieve." — San Francisco Chronicle

Martin Amis first tackled the Holocaust in 1991 with his bestselling novel Time's Arrow . He returns again to the Shoah with this astonishing portrayal of life in "the zone of interest," or "kat zet" — the Nazis' euphemism for Auschwitz. The narrative rotates among three main characters: Paul Doll, the crass, drunken camp commandant; Thomsen, nephew of Hitler's private secretary, in love with Doll's wife; and Szmul, one of the Jewish prisoners charged with disposing of the bodies. Through these three narrative threads, Amis summons a searing, profound, darkly funny portrait of the most infamous place in history. 

An epilogue by the author elucidates Amis's reasons and method for undertaking this extraordinary project.