The Stranger by Albert CamusPublished in 1942 by French author Albert Camus, The Stranger has long been considered a classic of twentieth century literature. Le Monde ranks it as number one on its "100 Books of the Century" list. Through this story of an ordinary man unwittingly drawn into a senseless murder on a sundrenched Algerian beach, Camus explores what he termed "the nakedness of man faced with the absurd."