THE OUTSIDER (L’ETRANGER)

by Albert Camus, Penguin/ Random House.

Ever walked along the beach on a cripplingly hot summer’s day, dazed and on the verge of heatstroke, and indifferently shot a man you found vaguely troubling? That’s what befalls Meursault in Camus’ celebrated 1942 absurdist novel. It’s an exploration of the trouble one can get into if they, for whatever reason, don’t fit along the lines of accepted human emotional and moral responsibility. As Camus himself summarised, “In our society any man who does not weep at his mother’s funeral runs the risk of being sentenced to death.” Grab a copy and go catch some rays!