“Its relevance lashes you across the face.” —Stephen Metcalf, The Los Angeles Times • “A redemptive book, one that wills the reader to believe, even in a time of despair.” —Roger Lowenstein, The Washington Post A haunting tale of human resilience and hope in the face of unrelieved horror, Albert Camus' iconic novel about an epidemic ravaging the people OF a North African coastal town IS a classic OF twentieth-century literature. 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. An IMMEDIATE triumph WHEN it was published IN 1947, the Plague IS IN part an allegory OF France's suffering under the Nazi occupation, and a timeless story of bravery and determination against the precariousness of human existence.