Which French author wrote 'The Stranger'?

Albert Camus wrote the French novel The Stranger. Originally published in French as L'Étranger by Gallimard in 1942, the book follows Meursault, an emotionally detached man living in French Algeria whose life changes after his mother's funeral and a violent encounter on a beach.

The story is divided into two parts: the first traces Meursault's seemingly indifferent life before the killing, while the second focuses on his imprisonment and trial. Camus uses Meursault's flat, restrained narration to explore alienation, social judgment, mortality, and what he saw as the absurd gap between human desires and an indifferent universe.

A notable translation detail causes occasional confusion. In Britain, the book has often been published as The Outsider, while American editions commonly use The Stranger. Both titles refer to Camus's 1942 work. Jean-Paul Sartre wrote influential commentary on the novel, but he did not write it. Camus later became a Nobel Prize winner in Literature, receiving the award in 1957.