The stories in "Exile and the Kingdom" explore the dilemma of being an outsider—even in your own country—and faith. With intense strength and lyricism, Camus beautifully yet harshly captures landscapes, whether the shimmering deserts of his home country, Algeria, or the wild, mysterious jungles of Brazil.

Here, a Frenchwoman is slowly drawn in by the difference of North Africa, a crippled vagrant goes mad from the harshness of his own people, and a barrel maker witnesses the gradual decline of his craft. A noble teacher must choose between law and life, while a modest painter finds himself clearly out of place in the hypocritical world of art, and a French engineer discovers a new sense of belonging in a distant land.

Albert Camus (1913-1960), French novelist, essayist, and playwright, was a representative of metropolitan French literature. His origins in Algeria and his experiences there in the 1930s had a dominant influence on his thinking and work. Carol Cosman is the translator of many works from French, both literary and theoretical. Among the books she has translated are Jean-Paul Sartre's "The Family Idiot: Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1857," Honoré de Balzac's "Colonel Chabert," Simone de Beauvoir's "America Day by Day," and more recently René Daumal's "Mount Analogue."

Pages: 128, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm