Sandra Smith

A bestseller in France, this is the first English translation of Albert Camus and Maria Casares' fascinating, impassioned letters - a record of one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century You and I met and fell in love passionately, impatiently, dangerously. I regret nothing and I feel that these last days I've lived are enough to justify a life. - Albert Camus to Maria Casares, 1st July 1944 Their affair began in wartime Paris. Maria Casares, a young Spanish actress, was starring in a production of the great writer's play The Misunderstanding, and at an after-party hosted by Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, they embarked on a brief but passionate relationship. Separated by the end of the Occupation and the return of Camus's wife to Paris, the couple were reunited by chance one day on the boulevard Saint-Germain, and from that day forward - until the fatal car crash that took Camus's life in 1960 - they were inseparable. Their correspondence, uninterrupted for over a decade, is testimony to the depth of their connection while also offering a vivid portrait of artistic life in post-war Europe. Camus and Casares debate books and politics; describe encounters with Colette, Cocteau, Gide and Picasso; discuss stardom and everyday life, their love of the sea and nature, their doubts and dreams. Above all, they describe a relationship that feels like an impossible gift. Translated into English for the first time by Sandra Smith and Cory Stockwell, these 865 letters reveal the intimate personal lives of two extraordinary artists, and record one of the great love affairs of the twentieth century.

In 1941, Irene Némirovsky sat down to write a book that would convey the magnitude of what she was living through by evoking the domestic lives and personal trials of the ordinary citizens of France. Némirovsky's death in Auschwitz in 1942 prevented her from seeing the day, sixty-five years later, that the existing two sections of her planned novel sequence, Suite Française, would be rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece. Set during the year that France fell to the Nazis, Suite Française falls into two parts. The first is a brilliant depiction of a group of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion; the second follows the inhabitants of a small rural community under occupation. Suite Française is a novel that teems with wonderful characters struggling with the new regime. However, amidst the mess of defeat, and all the hypocrisy and compromise, there is hope. True nobility and love exist, but often in surprising places. VINTAGE FRENCH CLASSICS - six masterpieces of French fiction in collectable editions.

Albert Camus' existentialist masterpiece, now in a wonderful new Clothbound Classics edition In The Outsider, his classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms. Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. 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 near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal.

'One of those books that marks a reader's life indelibly' William Boyd 'A compelling, dreamlike fable' Guardian In The Outsider, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms. Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. 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 near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal.

Diane, owner of Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, a cosy coffee shop turned library in Paris, seems to have the perfect life. But when she suddenly loses her husband and daughter in a car accident, her life is overturned and the world as she knows it disappears. Trapped by her memories, Diane closes her shop and retreats from friends and family. One year later, she moves from Paris to a small town on the Irish coast, determined to heal by rebuilding her life alone, without anyone's help or pity - until she meets Edward, a handsome and moody Irish photographer. Along windy shores and cobbled streets, Diane falls into a surprising and tumultuous romance. As she works to overcome her painful memories, Diane and Edward's once-in-a-lifetime connection inspires her to love herself and the world around her with new-found inner strength and happiness. But will it last when Diane leaves Ireland, and Edward, for good?

Diane, owner of Happy People Read and Drink Coffee, a cosy coffee shop turned library in Paris, seems to have the perfect life. But when she suddenly loses her husband and daughter in a car accident, her life is overturned and the world as she knows it disappears. Trapped by her memories, Diane closes her shop and retreats from friends and family. One year later, she moves from Paris to a small town on the Irish coast, determined to heal by rebuilding her life alone, without anyone's help or pity - until she meets Edward, a handsome and moody Irish photographer. Along windy shores and cobbled streets, Diane falls into a surprising and tumultuous romance. As she works to overcome her painful memories, Diane and Edward's once-in-a-lifetime connection inspires her to love herself and the world around her with new-found inner strength and happiness. But will it last when Diane leaves Ireland, and Edward, for good?

My mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.' In The Outsider (1942), his classic existentialist novel, Camus explores the alienation of an individual who refuses to conform to social norms. Meursault, his anti-hero, will not lie. 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 near Algiers, his lack of remorse compounds his guilt in the eyes of society and the law. Yet he is as much a victim as a criminal. Albert Camus' portrayal of a man confronting the absurd, and revolting against the injustice of society, depicts the paradox of man's joy in life when faced with the 'tender indifference' of the world. Sandra Smith's translation, based on close listening to a recording of Camus reading his work aloud on French radio in 1954, sensitively renders the subtleties and dream-like atmosphere of L'Etranger. Albert Camus (1913-1960), French novelist, essayist and playwright, is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His most famous works include The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), The Plague (1947), The Just (1949), The Rebel (1951) and The Fall (1956). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, and his last novel, The First Man, unfinished at the time of his death, appeared in print for the first time in 1994, and was published in English soon after by Hamish Hamilton. Sandra Smith was born and raised in New York City and is a Fellow of Robinson College, University of Cambridge, where she teaches French Literature and Language. She has won the French American Foundation Florence Gould Foundation Translation Prize, as well as the PEN Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize.