Vincenzo Barney travelled all the way from Massachusetts to join a panel of eight speakers at the My Martin Amis LIVE show in March this year. If you haven't listened to it already, do go back and hit play.

Since then, Vincenzo has had business on the continent, though he could not return home without first visiting Jack in South London to discuss the book he considers Amis's greatest achievement, The Zone of Interest.

Published in 2014, The Zone of Interest is Amis's fourteenth novel. The story is set in Auschwitz, where a Nazi officer falls in love with the wife of a camp commandant. Told through three narrators: Angelus Thomsen, the officer; Paul Doll, the commandant; and Szmul Zacharias, a Jewish Sonderkommando, its "compendium of epiphanies, appalled asides, anecdotes, and radically condensed history", according to the writer Joyce Carol Oates, makes it arguably one Amis's most compelling works. Upon publication, many called The Zone of Interest Amis's best novel in 25 years.

As well as diving into the widely-praised film adaptation, Vincenzo describes Amis's influence on him as a 29 year-old writer. On the subject of American literary culture more generally, he describes a "suspicion of melody" that he believes harms immersive enjoyment of fiction across the pond.

Listen out in particular for the moment where Vincenzo refers to a phrase Amis uses in The Zone of Interest, which he says he will likely spend the rest of his days trying to match.

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On Sunday 23 March 2025, listeners of the podcast gathered in Central London to watch a live Amisathon, featuring 8 panellists and the show's host.

The panel included former guests as well as a couple of new faces: Leo Robson, Alys Denby, Finn McRedmond, James Marriott, Zoe Strimpel, Sam Leith, Vincenzo Barney and John Niven.

It was a great success. Thank you to the 90+ ticket-holders who attended, to our wonderful panel, and to the stage team at 21Soho.

Relive the event or listen for the first time in this episode, ripped straight from the boards of the stage at the venue.

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🚨 IN 2025…

My Martin Amis will culminate in a LIVE PODCAST EVENT

📅 SAVE THE DATE: Sunday 23 March

📍WHERE? 21Soho , 3-5 Sutton Row London, W1D 4NR

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Martin Amis's 1997 novel Night Train followed a trifecta of bestsellers: Money, London Fields and The Information.

Written as a dark parody of the noir genre, Night Train follows female detective Mike Hoolihan on an investigation into the suicide of a woman named Jennifer Rockwell. Her death is near total mystery to everyone who knew her, including Hoolihan. Prior to her death, Rockwell appeared to live a perfect life accentuated by her own physical beauty. Stranger still is the suggestion, based on the forensics, that Rockwell had shot herself in the head three times.

Night Train was adapted to screen in 2018 by film director, screenwriter and producer Carol Morley. In this episode, Morley speaks to Jack about how the opportunity came to her, her first impressions of the novel, and how in the process of adapting it she found a deep connection with both Hoolihan and Amis. The adaptation was named Out of Blue, a though it received mixed reviews, Amis emailed Carol to say he was pleased it had been made.

Carol speaks candidly about the process of collating the images around which to build the story, her research into American police investigations into homicide, and her last thoughts about the mark Amis left on her as a reader and film director.

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