A stench you will never forget

This is a difficult read/listen. Not only because of the subject matter, but also the structure of the book (narrated by three characters) requires your full attention to ensure you are keeping track. In addition a love story set in a concentration camp is a brave move, especially as the protagonists are the Kommandant's wife and a very active member of the Nazi war machine. Martin Amis doesn't shirk from describing the horrors and deprived behaviour, however it is the poignant moments, such as a small girl taking charge of her baby brother before being murdered, that will stay with you forever. Dare I say there is even some dry humour, for example the Kommandant's pathetic attempt to maintain authority while sporting two black eyes of dubious origin. Above all there is the visceral description of the overwhelming smell of rotting flesh and of Berlin, described as a city with halitosis. One again Martin Amis maintains his reputation as one of our leading writers and the narrator does full justice to the material.

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5 people found this helpful

Challenging

An exploration of the dark side of human nature, scattered with moments of love and humanity.

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2 people found this helpful

The voice is actually painful

It’s pretty rare that I give up on an audible book and buy the kindle version (having already paid once) but I just could not listen to this performance. The voice is oleaginous to the point where it is physically unpleasant to listen to. I could not follow his renditions of the French and German excerpts as he’s clearly not a speaker of either.

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What a listen!

I read the outline of the book so know what to expect to a certain degree, but I receive so much more. Sean Barrett opened his reading with the title and his voice alone manage to send a shiver down my Spain. The German and French paragraphs were mastered perfectly well by Mr Berrett. I grew up in Israel, I met many old ladies with numbers tattooed on the inside of their forearm, As young people we were thought to forgive but not to forget and yet this book has shown me just how much I had forgotten.
Thank you Martin Amis for a book that should really replace Madame Bovery on the school reading list.

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2 people found this helpful

To begin confusing then settled.

As usual the narrator was excellent.well done Mr Barrett. The story was okay once I got into it.

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A love story set in hell

it took me a minute to get my head around the structure, and to get used to the narration which occasionally breaks into German words, but, once I found my footing, this was a gripping, darkly comic, beautifully written and utterly bleak tale of a love affair amidst the corpse-rotting stench of the Holocaust.

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Amis I wish I had your mind

Excellent book true Amis
This is obviously a sad & grim subject matter
Though the Nazis are made to look grotesque ( as if they could look anything else!)
It's also wickedly funny in places
7 chapters each told from the perspective of ......
1 young blonde blue eye nazi who's uncle is Martin Boorman ( spelling)
2 a camp kamandant a repulsive man
3 a Jewish man who is forced to help in the final solution
The narration is great
Best book this year and I fly through books

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7 people found this helpful

Worth a second listen

What did you like best about The Zone of Interest? What did you like least?

I liked the writing, it was very well written and got me thinking about a famous period in history from a different perspective - from the viewpoint of Nazi officers. What I didn't like much was the format as it was really confusing on audio to know who was narrating, and within these sections to know who was speaking.

What about Sean Barrett’s performance did you like?

He read the novel in a straightforward manner with some variation of style attempted, but sadly not enough for me to differentiate between characters.

Any additional comments?

I have not read anything by this author before and took a risk with this book which is described as a humorous take on the concentration camps of the Second World War. I didn't find it humorous at all, but I can see why people say that, because the central characters don't seem to take themselves seriously.

I usually listen to books whilst doing other things like driving, walking, housework etc. At first I was confused as to what was happening, but a quick Wiki search told me that each chapter is divided into 3 parts narrated in turn by a Nazi officer, a camp kommandant and a member of the sonderkomando. Their stories intertwine with life in the camp although there isn't much of a plot.

What I enjoyed was the quality of the prose, the way it made me think about lives of Germans in these extraordinary jobs and the way things were so topsy turvy like values, morals, behaviours. I've read a lot of non fiction from this period but think this book can reveal more than kommandant memoirs written by men in prison, facing death can.

What I didn't like much was the fact I had to sit and really listen carefully to follow what was happening. The beauty for me of audio books is being able to multitask. Also there was quite a lot of sexual content, although the author uses lots of German terms to describe body parts, and the reality of the camps was probably much more brutal than can be described in a novel.

This is definitely worth a second listen to get the full benefit of the quality writing.

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1 person found this helpful

Martin Amis at his masterly best

Scenes of atrocity are rendered all the more nightmarish by the author’s matter of fact delivery,the interweaving of laugh out loud satire and the moments of heartbreaking pathos. Superbly narrated. Highly recommended.

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Grim

This is a tough listen. Expertly told, wonderfully narrated, a hideously real tale from within a nazi death camp. Despite the painful images, you really must persevere with the story. I told myself it was important not to flinch from truth...but I feel scarred by this book.

You have to grit your teeth and get through it.

I don't think I am any closer to understanding why or how, but I feel I know more of the what.

There is no humour here. You will not be soft soaped.

Listen. Learn. Don't let it happen again.

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2 people found this helpful