Zona

The spellbinding new book from the acclaimed author of Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi is a wide-ranging investigation into the masterpiece of cinema that has haunted him since he first saw it thirty years ago.

The putative subject of Zona is the film Stalker, by the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. As Dyer immerses us more and more deeply in the movie, it becomes apparent that Stalker, for all its power to obsess him, is only the point of departure for a wonderfully digressive exploration of cinema in general and European cinema in particular; of how we try to understand what we cherish; and of how we try to fathom—and realize—our deepest wishes. Magnificently unpredictable, frequently hilarious (and, surely, one of the most unusual books ever written about cinema), Zona is thoroughly enthralling and thought-provoking from first to last—even if you have not seen the film.