Albert Camus the Algerian: Colonialism, Terrorism, Justice
By David Carroll
Columbia University Press £19, 233 pages
FT bookshop price: £15.20

After the war, The Stranger and The Plague made Albert Camus a hero to the French Left, a noble defender of the oppressed, but by the time of his death he was reviled by such critics as Conor Cruise O’Brien and Edward Said as an apologist for colonialism.

In this timely study of Camus’ writings about his “true country”, David Carroll shows that he deplored the behaviour of both sides in the Battle of Algiers. He also draws comparisons between Camus’ day and our own, when we are living once again in an “age of terror”, invited to be “for” or “against”. Camus should be listened to still, Carroll argues, not because he was always right, but because he shows “how terror is a trap for both sides in any conflict”.