As a literature lover, one could hardly miss it; 73 years after it first saw light, The Plague by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus is hitting the bestseller lists.
Why is this book a must-read? Could existentialism - of whom Camus was one of the "big three" - help us to relate to the current situation? What themes in the book need a closer look to enjoy it even more?
To get you started, Professor Ruud Welten recorded a podcast, parallel to the book club. Listen below to his literary-philosophical introduction to this Nobel Prize winner and the book that (unfortunately) is more urgent than ever before. How are topics such as vulnerability, courage and friendship addressed and what can we learn from this
Listen to the podcast
You can also listen to this podcast on Spotify and Soundcloud.
“A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience, and of the ways in which humankind confronts death, The Plague is at once a masterfully crafted novel, eloquently understated and epic in scope, and a parable of ageless moral resonance, profoundly relevant to our times. In Oran, a coastal town in North Africa, the plague begins as a series of portents, unheeded by the people. It gradually becomes an omnipresent reality, obliterating all traces of the past and driving its victims to almost unearthly extremes of suffering, madness, and compassion.” [goodreads.com]
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