<b>“Its relevance lashes you across the face.” —Stephen Metcalf, <i>The Los Angeles Times • </i>“A redemptive book, one that wills the reader to believe, even in a time of despair.” —Roger Lowenstein, <i>The Washington Post </i></b><br /><br />A haunting tale of human resilience and hope in the face of unrelieved horror, Albert Camus&apos; iconic novel about an epidemic ravaging the people of a North African coastal town is a classic of twentieth-century literature. <br /><br />The townspeople of Oran are in the grip of a deadly plague, which condemns its victims to a swift and horrifying death. Fear, isolation and claustrophobia follow as they are forced into quarantine. Each person responds in their own way to the lethal disease: some resign themselves to fate, some seek blame, and a few, like Dr. Rieux, resist the terror.<br /><br />An immediate triumph when it was published in 1947, <i>The Plague</i> is in part an allegory of France&apos;s suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a timeless story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence.