Amok

Book summary

Aboard a liner home from Asia, a sleepless passenger approaches the narrator at night and asks him to keep a secret. A German doctor posted to a remote station in the Dutch East Indies, he tells of a European woman who came to demand an illegal operation. His refusal, dictated by pride as much as desire, sends him after her like a man seized by madness. The story explores obsession, misplaced honour and the solitude of Europeans in the tropics. Zweig confines the confession to one night at sea, where a man's headlong run no longer stops.