The Fall

Based around a series of blistering confessions, The Fall was described by Sartre as ‘perhaps the most beautiful and the least understood’ of Camus’ novels

Jean-Baptiste Clamence is a soul in turmoil. Over several drunken nights in an Amsterdam bar, he regales a chance acquaintance with his story. From this successful former lawyer and seemingly model citizen a compelling, self-loathing catalogue of guilt, hypocrisy and alienation pours forth. The Fall is a brilliant portrayal of a man who has glimpsed the hollowness of his existence. But beyond depicting one man’s disillusionment, Camus’ novel exposes the universal human condition and its absurdities - for our innocence that, once lost, can never be recaptured …