Der Fall

If pimps and thieves were always and everywhere condemned, then all righteous people would constantly consider themselves innocent! And in my opinion, that must be prevented.

In a breathtaking confession, Jean-Baptiste Clamence, a formerly esteemed lawyer who always considered himself a benefactor of humanity, admits to self-satisfaction and opportunism as the driving forces behind his once strong sense of justice. One night, when he saw a woman standing on a bridge about to jump into the river, he did not stop her. Since then, his life has been in free fall, and he poses questions to himself and others: Why do we do what we do? Why do we live the way we live?

This novel, one of the most famous texts of existentialism, is Camus' last completed prose work. A year after its publication, the author received the Nobel Prize in Literature.