First published 1994
Alone in a bombed-out Paris apartment, Jean-Paul Sartre's nameless narrator grapples with the reality of occupation. As the city crumbles outside, he is forced to confront his own moral failings and the burden of his complicit silence. In quiet moments of reflection, the man's sense of self fractures, his identity dissolving into the chaos. Yet, in the end, he finds a glimmer of hope in the possibility of reconciliation and the resilience of the human spirit.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Paris
Period: 20th Century
Hardcover · Hamish Hamilton/
Content warnings: war