Camus's Algerian Chronicles, edited and introduced by Alice Kaplan and beautifully translated by Arthur Goldhammer, affords Camus the belated opportunity to make his own case to the Anglophone public. This book, in slightly different form, proved his final public word on the Algerian question when it was originally published in June 1958... To witness the progression of his responses is to recognize above all the remarkable consistency of Camus's moral conviction, the dogged optimism of his outlook, and his unfailing ability, even in the complex turmoil of emotional involvement with the issue, to cleave to his own principles of justice... It was this moral lucidity that had provoked Camus's disenchantment with communism and underpinned his ardent opposition to the death penalty, a stance that prompted him to speak out, at different times, to save the lives of Nazi collaborators and FLN terrorists alike... Camus's honesty and consistency retain, in retrospect, a moral purity that few others could claim.–Claire Messud "New York Review of Books" (11/7/2013 12:00:00 AM)
