“lgerians, however, for whom Camus had once played an exemplary role, reread his early novel in a more critical light
when the writer visited Algeria in the 1950s, only to speak out there against the Algerian struggle for independence and in favor
of federation with France. In an open letter to Camus in 1959, Ahmed Taleb, imprisoned at the time in France for activities
connected with events in Algeria, wrote:
Ten years ago we were a handful of young Algerians, seated at our school desks and imbued with your work. And, even if you
were not our spiritual inspiration, you atleast provided for us a model of writing. ... Ten years have now elapsed and our disillusion with you is as great as our hopes once were. Much
water has flowed under the bridges. Let us say rather much blood. And how many tears have fallen on the Algerian land that once inspired pages of such beauty from you.47”