The Fall by Albert Camus
'Have you noticed that Amsterdam's concentric circles resemble the circles of hell?' Jean-Baptiste Clamence addresses a chance acquaintance in an Amsterdam bar. A successful Parisian Barrister - the epitome of good citizenship and decent behaviour - he has come to realise the deep-seated hypocrisy of his existence. His brilliant and discomforting monologue gradually saps, then undermines, our own complacency.