Albert
Camus, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature
in 1957, always refused the existentialist
label with which he is usually associated.
For Camus, the world was 'absurd', without
purpose, leading only unto death, yet all
the more invigorating precisely because of
this. Long associated with Left-Bank intellectuals,
Camus' real emotional centre was always his
native Algeria and the poverty of his youth.
This has become even clearer with the publication
of his posthumous novel The First Man, which
has catapulted Camus back into the public
eye after years of excommunication by the
Left for his 'un-radical' views during the
Algerian war.
Introducing Camus portrays a man who was an
intellectual in the tradition of the great
French humanists, a Resistance fighter during
World War II, and also a great sensualist
for whom sun, sea, sex, football and theatre
were the answer to life's absurdity.
***
David Zane Mairowitz's plays for radio are
produced in over twenty countries, and his
radiographic opera, The Voluptuous Tango,
won the Prix Italia Special Prize and the
Sony Prize in 1997. Another play, In the Crocodile
Swamp, won the Prix Europa in 2005.
Alain
Korkos was born in 1955 in Paris. He lives
there still, and works for many French publishers,
as an author of novels and an illustrator
for children and teenagers. He also writes
newspaper articles on art history.
