'The sky seemed to rip apart from end to end to pour fire down upon me' Meursault will not conform. When his mother dies, he refuses to show his emotions simply to satisfy the expectations of others. And when he commits a random act of violence on a sun-drenched beach, his lack of remorse only compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Albert Camus' portrayal of a man confronting the absurdity of human life became a classic. Yet it is also a book filled with quiet joy in the physical world, and this new translation sensitively renders the subtleties and dreamlike atmosphere of The Outsider. A new translation by Sandra Smith