This is not your typical zombie book.
Zombies depicted in popular movies like “Day Of The
Living Dead”, “Night Of The Living Dead”, or other
similarly titled ones all have this partially deformed face
and this mindless gaze. These slowly walking brain dead
flesh eaters are supposed to be unconscious killing
machines capable of doing great damage to anyone on
their path.
However, this book is not about them.
This book is about another type of zombies.
Think about a medical doctor who, during one of his
sleepwalking episodes, performed an accurate diagnosis
on his patient, with normal doctor-patient conversation
carried out, and then had no memory or recollection of
whatever happened afterward (except the handwritten
note jolted down by the doctor during the diagnosis). One
can argue that the mind of the doctor was not even there
when he performed the diagnosis. He was in an autopilot
mode without the involvement of his consciousness.
When a person is functioning without the involvement of
his own consciousness, we have an example of a
phenomenal zombie (or philosopher’s zombie).