The Outsider by Albert Camus

Yes! I have just read the first line of the entry for this book in "1001 Books to Read ...". It states: "The Outsider is a novel of absolute flatness." I couldn't have put it better myself. Quite bizarre ... the reader learns about the death of the narrator's mother, his relationship with a girl, his sort-of relationship with a neighbour, into whose life he becomes involved because it might sort of seem rude not to, although that would insinuate some sort of feeling of which there appears to be none, a murder occurs, a trial, an execution looms ... all dispassionately accounted, blankly, without emotion or apparent interest. Very strange book to read ...