The Outsider

First published in 1942 as L'Etranger, this novel is narrated by Meursault, a clerk in Algiers who attends his mother's funeral without displayed grief, begins an affair, and on a hot beach kills an Arab man after a scuffle involving his neighbour Raymond. The second part follows his imprisonment and trial, in which prosecutors and chaplain dwell less on the shooting than on his failure to perform expected feeling. Sea, sun, and the courtroom are the chief settings. The book is a short novel of a man judged for his indifference, not a detective puzzle and not a tract.

Bound in fawn paper, printed with a black, brown and white cover design by Matthew Richardson. Brown endpapers. Fawn slipcase.