FIRST THOUGHTS: Lars Kepler, Paul Dolan and Sarah Waters

AMIS’S work divides into two broad strands. There are the state-of-England satires (Success, Money, Lionel Asbo) and then there are the books that reflect on the horrors of the mid-20th century, the gulags and the death camps (Time’s Arrow, House Of Meetings). The Zone Of Interest falls firmly into the second category.

Set in Auschwitz and rooted in real events, it focuses on a tight cast of senior Nazis (among them Camp Commandant Paul Doll) and inmates like Szmul, who, as a Sonder, endures a unique hell among hells — forced to assist in the cremation and disposal of the slaughtered.