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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris and agencies

Handwritten ‘draft’ of Albert Camus’s L’Étranger sold in Paris for €650,000

Covers and spine of book
The identity of the first buyer of Camus’s fake manuscript is unknown. Photograph: Tajan

A handwritten manuscript of the classic French novel L’Étranger by Albert Camus has sold for more than €650,000 (£553,000) at auction, despite bafflement over the reasons for which the Nobel prize-winning author appeared to have faked and backdated it.

The bound, 104-page draft of Camus’s novel about a French settler in Algeria who kills an unnamed Arab man went under the hammer in Paris on Wednesday.

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