The Stranger by Albert Camus

The Stranger

by Albert Camus

With the excitement of a perfectly executed thriller and the force of a parable, The Stranger is the ultimate masterpiece from Nobel Prize Winner Albert Camus—one of the most engaged and intellectually alert writers of the past century.

Albert Camus's spare, laconic masterpiece about a murder in Algeria is famous for having diagnosed, with an almost scientific clarity, that condition of reckless alienation and spiritual exhaustion that characterized so much of twentieth-century life.

Reviewed by Berls on

4 of 5 stars

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My brother has a real knack for finding books I've never heard of and would probably never have read on my own - and then they turn out being pretty good!

This is an older, award-winning book which is how it ended up on Phil's short list. I can see why it won awards, there's something very mesmerizing by it. The title is interesting because I'm not 100% sure who The Stranger is that it's meant to refer to, but I do think the main character was very strange. It's as if he has no emotion - though that's not exactly accurate. This is such a hard book to explain without telling you what happened. But I will say, it's a very quick read... I READ it (not listened - not even sure if it's available in audio) and it only took me 4 days. If you know me, you know that's super-fast. Many of you would probably put it away in one day lol. I recommend it, because it is super compelling and just different from so much of what I normally read - it was nice to go off the beaten path.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 April, 2022: Finished reading
  • 30 April, 2022: Reviewed