The Stranger

Albert Camus’s first published novel appeared in French in 1942. It follows Meursault, who kills a man in Algiers weeks after his mother’s funeral, and the story splits into the parts before and after the killing. Matthew Ward translated the Vintage edition, which keeps the American title The Stranger. Paulo Coelho read it in his 30s, was taken with its simple, direct language, and thinks it speaks to today’s rising xenophobia.