The outsider

Now a major new film, L'Étranger (The Stranger), directed by François Ozon

'One of those books that marks a reader's life indelibly' William Boyd

'A compelling, dreamlike fable' Guardian

In The Outsider, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms. Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal.