Prologue -- A bonfire -- From Belcourt to Hydra -- A first try -- The novel he didn't know he was writing -- A reporter on the beat -- Any person condemned to death shall have his head cut off -- The absurd -- A first chapter -- What he carried -- Writing part I -- Already traced within me -- Exodus -- Rue d'Arzew -- A jealous teacher and a generous comrade -- Resolve -- The Malraux factor -- A reader's report -- Gallimard's war -- The stranger is born -- Recovery -- From the absurd to revolt -- Above ground -- Existentialist twins -- Consecration in New York -- A book for everyone -- What's in a name? -- Epilogue: l'écho d'Oran

"A National Book Award-finalist biographer tells the story of how a young man in his 20s who had never written a novel turned out a masterpiece that still grips readers more than 70 years later and is considered a rite of passage for readers around the world,"--NoveList