Based on Dovlatov's actual experience of being a prison guard in Soviet Russia in the 1960s, and full of comic and humane detail, The Zone depicts the absurd day-to- day life of a camp in an insightful and unusual way, challenging commonly held perceptions of the relations between incarcerators and the incarcerated.

A priceless chronicle of its time which highlights universal themes, Dovlatov's genre-defying novel also provides moments of high entertainment and humour, rendered in his characteristically sharp, concise and sardonic style.