The Stranger
Reflection: A short book about a protagonist who is caught between the honest search for meaning and the realization that the universe is indifferent.
After committing a senseless murder, and proceeding through the resulting trial, he is not really punished for the deed itself, but rather for his unwillingness to conform; his emotional detachment, his indifference and honesty.
Throughout the book, many characters try to impose meaning onto him (such as a religious chaplain while in prison or the moral judge in his trial) but he rejects these 'illusions' even till his eventual demise.
In the end, he accepts the absurd: the idea that we search for meaning in a universe that offers none. And yet, in that acceptance, he finds a kind of peace.