A narrator on a ship sailing from Calcutta to Europe meets a stranger who tells him a confession. The stranger is a doctor who had worked in a remote post in the Dutch East Indies and was approached by a haughty European woman asking him to perform an illegal operation. His response, a mix of arrogance, desire and a need to control her, pushes both toward catastrophe. The title refers to amok, a Malay term for a sudden frenzy of violent obsession. Zweig tells the story with intensity, focusing on one man's psychological collapse.
If you like short, taut narratives about obsession and shame, this novella delivers in under a hundred pages. It is a good introduction to Zweig's interest in what passion does to a person.
Deep, inward-looking and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2000
- Publisher
- Fischer (Tb.), Frankfurt
- ISBN
- 9783596292394
- Language
- DE
