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The historical novel by the French writer of American descent is written on behalf of the fictional character Maximilian Aue, a former SS officer, a rank-and-file executor of the Nazi programme for the "final solution of the Jewish question". He is an intellectual, immersed in the study of philosophy, classical literature, music, and a cold-blooded killer. The book takes place on the Eastern Front (Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Stalingrad), in Poland, Germany, Hungary and France during the Second World War and the Holocaust. The executions at Babyn Yar, the extermination of Jews in Kamianets-Podilskyi and Kharkiv, the use of gassing agents and gas chambers are shown through the lens of the organiser and performer von Aktionen.

In 2006, The Benefactresses won the Goncourt Prize and the Grand Prix of the French Academy, and the book became a European classic, translated into more than 35 languages. The novel sparked a heated debate and was widely discussed in newspapers, magazines, academic publications and seminars. Pierre Nora, a French historian and author of the concept of "places of memory", called it "an outstanding literary and historical phenomenon". The English Times included The Benefactors in the list of the five most important works of fiction about the Second World War.