Albert Camus/The Outsider

The story of an alienated man who eventually commits a murder and waits to be executed for it. The book uses an Algerian setting, drawn from Camus' own upbringing. Usually classed as an existential novel, 'The Outsider' is indeed based on Camus' theory of the absurd. He believes that every person should do as they please and this is explored through the novel's main character, Meursault, who lives by the ideas of the existenialsts. This is predominantly shown in the second part of the novel when Meursault defies all ideas off religion and God and lashes out at the priest. The trial seems to be based around the fact that Meursault did not cry at his mother's funeral, something that this society considers unnatural.