"On April 16, doctor Bernard Rieux came out of his surgery and stumbled upon a dead rat in the stairwell." This is how the sinister events begin in one of the strangest, most influential and, according to many, most significant novels of the 20th century. A terrible epidemic rears its head in a peaceful small town. , the people who live there are bewildered, helpless, and finally resigned to the seeming inevitable destruction. However, Doctor Rieux does not give up, he fights with the senseless end. The Sisyphean struggle of the doctor and the townspeople exemplifies the many possible forms of standing up and solidarity, the power of goodness hidden in man .
Camus began writing the first version of his novel in September 1942, in German-occupied France, which was finally published in 1947 after the war. It is rare for a masterpiece to be a resounding success at the moment of its release. The contemporaries saw in The Plague a chronicle of choices and opportunities for action during the occupation; however, it has now become clear that his importance goes far beyond the actualities of his time. Hungarian readers can now get their hands on the novel in a new translation by Zoltán Vargyas.

"There were many plagues and many wars in the world. But plague and war always catch people unprepared."