Amélie Nothomb
Acido Solforico

It is difficult to relate to an author like Amélie Nothomb. Of the three novels I have read, "Hygiene of the Assassin," "Loving Sabotage," and "Sulphuric Acid," the latter, which I will attempt to examine today, is the least "violent," so to speak. And it is set for almost its entire duration in a Nazi-like concentration camp.

The Belgian author, but born in Japan in Kobe, chooses in this work to lash out against today’s society that "pretends to deplore suffering as entertainment, but doesn’t miss a single episode". And she does so by mixing reality shows and the Holocaust, resulting in various criticisms from many people who describe the book as "obscene" and "disrespectful". The result? From the author’s perspective, a success on all fronts, and later I will attempt to justify this thought.

But first, let's get to the plot of the book, which sees Pannonique, a beautiful French girl, kidnapped during a stroll in the gardens and taken to a concentration camp closely related to Nazi camps. But this time, politics has nothing to do with it; it wasn't the military who kidnapped the girl but a TV crew, catering to the perverse desires of some organizers who have created a new reality show called "Concentration," where the "contestants" are divided into two groups: those forced to live like deportees, to which Pannonique belongs, and those who volunteered to play the role of the kapo. Among these is Zdena, a girl considered by everyone to be a nobody, who seems to disdain the type of show but chooses to participate because, for the first time, she feels accepted. The beautiful Pannonique, known in the camp by her registration number CKZ 114, in her superiority and, indeed, extraordinary beauty, attracts the attention of kapo Zdena, who develops a morbid obsession with her. To learn the girl’s name, the kapo, having the option every morning to select two contestants to be eliminated (in the true sense of the word), decides one day to eliminate one of her friends, MDA 802, and Pannonique, to save her, finally reveals her name. Meanwhile, outside the camp, the media rages and protests about the baseness of the program, but only end up providing it with vast publicity. "Concentration" briefly becomes the most-watched program, and ratings increase day by day. Inside, however, Zdena begins to feel an ever-growing passion for Pannonique, defending her from daily beatings and gifting her pieces of chocolate. The protagonist takes advantage of this, feeding and helping her companions, who now see her as a point of reference, but Zdena expects something in return, and that something is a sexual favor from Pannonique. Outside, meanwhile, the incredible happens: following an attack by Pannonique on live television, the newspapers finally decide not to give "Concentration" any space on their pages, and the rise in ratings stops. The organizers, worried, come up with another idea: allowing viewers to decide who gets eliminated each day. The outrage is, of course, high, but abstention from voting is non-existent: everyone, even secretly, votes for contestants to be eliminated. Inside the camp, Pannonique and her companions, including an Italian named Pietro Livi (a name reminiscent of Primo Levi), known in the camp as EPJ 322 and in love with the girl, are indignant and exasperated. However, Pannonique doesn't want to give in to Zdena, despite hints of a possibility of salvation for the detainees. The girl decides to speak to the public, inviting them to vote for her, solely for her, so that she can be killed to end her suffering and spare the others for one day. Zdena, worried, decides to still try to help her after speaking with her during the night. In this case, ratings skyrocket to 100%, with everyone watching "Concentration" and everyone voting. In the morning, Pannonique’s wishes are fulfilled, but in addition to her, MDA 802 is selected. It seems all hope is lost when Zdena appears with several homemade Molotov cocktails filled with gasoline and sulphuric acid, threatening to blow everything up if the prisoners are not freed and the program ended. The ploy, although the Molotov cocktails contain wine instead of sulfuric acid and therefore cannot explode, works. The army is called, and Zdena obtains a signed contract from a politician obligating them to block such programs from starting in the future. The surviving contestants manage to return to their old lives still alive, and among them, Zdena will be the one most positively affected by the experience.

At the opening, it was mentioned that with this book, Nothomb achieved clear success. The author thoroughly examines the minds of the people involved, trying to explain how and why certain programs, which in reality are not too far from "Concentration," achieve success. And she does it with her distinctive style, writing a book that doesn’t exceed 140 pages and reads in one breath.

Recommended for everyone.