The Stranger (Vintage International)

The masterpiece of Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus now in a striking American English translation. The Stranger remains vital for its unsettling insights into the impossibility of moral certainty in the face of violence.

“Matthew Ward has done Camus and us a great service. The Stranger is now a different and better novel for its American readers; it is now our classic as well as France’s.”—Chicago Sun-Times

Since it was first published in English, in 1946, Albert Camus’s first novel, The Stranger (L’etranger), has had a profound impact on millions of American readers. Through this story of an ordinary man who unwittingly gets drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explored what he termed “the nakedness of man faced with the absurd.”

Now, in this illuminating translation, extraordinary for its exactitude and clarity, the original intent of The Stranger is made more immediate. This haunting novel has been given a new life for generations to come.

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Published Mar 13, 1989

144 pages

Average rating: 7.33

455 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *The Stranger* is an easy-to-read, thought-provoking novel that explores existential and moral questions through a distinctively indiffere...

Oree
Jun 25, 2025
4/10 stars
Camus made the main character come to life. Meursault to me seems like the average indifferent person. Some people are passionate about things and the main character doesn't seem to care about anything. The book brings up a lot of deep questions but it was pretty predictable in the end
Monika Dančová
Feb 19, 2026
6/10 stars
Very easy to read, it was a second work by Camus that I´ve read and I really enjoy his style. Easy, comprehensible.
Besides, the story didn't give me that much. It is kind of a question of morals, applied on a short story. It questions justice, and who are the ones to judge. Existencialist questions like what makes a man - whether his actions or his qualities and behaviour. And if its okay to not give a shit and rather die.

My first and probably the biggest problem was, that I just could not relate to the main character. He truly is careless, to the point where you either enjoy the irony of it, or he is just getting on your nerves. I was somewhere in between. Or I just don't enjoy such philosophical controversies that much.
irelandescapes
Feb 16, 2026
5/10 stars
The agony of not being known and unsterstood by people after killing a man must be really tough.
Ooreoluwa
Oct 16, 2025
8/10 stars
It was a great read, a mind-boggling approach to nihilism and death. It shows the tragic implication of accepting the reality of life that everyone will die eventually.
Nayri
Oct 07, 2025
No rating yet bc idk what I think.

But this was at the very least, an interesting story. It’s definitely a philosophical journey, but it’s not pedantic which is nice ! Idk if I like it, but maybe like it the wrong word. I suppose I appreciate it. Even if I don’t agree w the philosophy presented.

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