Books like L’étranger by Albert Camus

In a bar in Amsterdam, a former Parisian lawyer-turned-judicial penitent confesses his moral decline, revealing the complex forces that drive the modern man's descent into obscurities and self-sabotage.

The Bell Jar is the sole novel by Sylvia Plath, a psychologically intense and autobiographical look at a young woman’s decline into mental illness.

A young, ambitious man rises amid France’s 19th‑century social and political turmoil, struggling against birthright and wealth to shape his destiny.

Raymond Queneau presents ninety‑nine literary exercises that each retell the same minor brawl on a bus, exploring diverse styles, techniques and forms.

A spiritual adventure following a search for an ancient Peruvian manuscript that holds nine insights meant to guide humanity toward a new era of awareness.

A French novel that blends fiction with a personal account of the author's battle with AIDS, exploring themes of friendship, love, and the philosophical implications of illness.

A surreal French tale by Boris Vian in which bizarre events unfold, including a woman’s death when a flower grows inside her chest.

A lonely young girl discovers a faun and embarks on a cosmic adventure to learn about her primitive ancestors and the universe beyond the stars.

Available in English for the first time, Marie Vieux-Chauvet's stunning trilogy of novellas is a remarkable literary event. In a brilliant translation by Rose-Myriam Rejouis and Val Vinokur, Love, Anger, Madness is a scathing response to the struggles of race, class, and sex that have ruled Haiti. Suppressed upon its initial publication in 1968, this major work became an underground classic and was finally released in an authorized edition in France in 2005.In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet offers three slices of life under an oppressive regime. Gradually building in emotional intensity, the novellas paint a shocking portrait of families and artists struggling to survive under Haiti's terrifying government restrictions that have turned its society upside down, transforming neighbors into victims, spies, and enemies.In "Love," Claire is the eldest of three sisters who occupy a single house. Her dark skin and unmarried status make her a virtual servant to the rest of the family. Consumed by an intense passion for her brother-in-law, she finds redemption in a criminal act of rebellion.In "Anger," a middle-class family is ripped apart when twenty-year-old Rose is forced to sleep with a repulsive soldier in order to prevent a government takeover of her father's land.And in "Madness," Rene, a young poet, finds himself trapped in a house for days without food, obsessed with the souls of the dead, dreading the invasion of local military thugs, and steeling himself for one final stand against authority. Sympathetic, savage and truly compelling with an insightful introduction by Edwidge Danticat, Love, Anger, Madness is an extraordinary, brave and graphic evocation of a country in turmoil.From the Hardcover edition.

It's Carnival time in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Before an uninterrupted public, Solibo Magnificent, the great teller of tales, is felled, seemingly choked by his own words. Is it autostrangulation or murder? Two police officers lead the investigation, but what they discover is a transitory universe at the threshold of oblivion - the universe of the Masters of the Word who, like Solibo, possess the gift of language: perfect for rich and boundless discourse, but not very helpful for unraveling a crime.