The Plague

Albert Camus received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957, and The Plague stands alongside The Stranger as one of his defining works. Set in the Algerian city of Oran during a devastating epidemic, the novel explores the varied responses of individuals confronting suffering, death, and the absurdity of existence. It serves simultaneously as a gripping narrative of communal crisis and a profound allegory of resistance against oppression.

Written in the aftermath of the Second World War, The Plague functions as a thinly veiled allegory of the Nazi occupation of France and the moral choices faced by those living under tyranny. The novel gained remarkable renewed relevance during the COVID-19 pandemic, as readers worldwide returned to Camus's meditation on plague, solidarity, and the persistence of human dignity in the face of catastrophe.