Albert Camus and SADEQUAIN

It was a remarkable achievement. An incredible scenario. How did Sadequain manage to impress the French jury to select him for the coveted assignment of pictorially interpreting the most famous novel written by the French Nobel Laureate, Albert Camus? France is a nation known to have more artists per square mile than any other country. Pakistan is a country not to have produced artists of international repute. Sadequain, a Pakistani, could not read or write French. Then how could he comprehend the intellectually taxing French novel based on the philosophical complexities of existentialism? If he could not read and understand it well enough then how could he illustrate its emotions, the irony, and the absurdity? The improbable achievement deserves a special treatment.To facilitate the enormity of the task, this book provides a short background note on the Nobel Laureate, Albert Camus and a summary of his novel, The Stranger, written in 1942. This background note provides a perspective with respect to the collection of lithographs by Sadequain illustrating the characters and the story of the novel.