This novella is written by the Nobel laureate Albert Camus. He is also a French philosopher. The version I read was translated from French by Matthew Ward. Although this is a translation, I thought it reads very well. The novella is about a man that basically on autopilot and is indifferent to everything, who unwittingly gets drawn into a murder of an Arab. The plot is quite simple, but the overarching theme in this philosophical book is complex— Absurdity. Camus himself explained that the novella is about “the nakedness of a man faced with the absurd.” The book starts off with the death of the protagonist’s mother, which he was seemingly indifferent to. That was peculiar and grabbed my attention as it challenged my thinking and morals. It made me think about the differences in way people display emotions. For this book, I think it is very important to read between the lines as it will reveal much about the reader as much as the author (or novel as a whole). The ending is even absurd. The last few pages gave me chills. I rate this a 7/10.
The Stranger (1942)
