The Plague - Albert Camus

Without memories, without hope, they lived for the moment only. Indeed, the here and now had come to mean everything to them. For there is no denying that the plague had gradually killed off in all of us the faculty not of love only but even of friendship. Naturally enough, since love asks something of the future, and nothing was left us but a series of present moments.
...
They knew now that if there is one thing one can always yearn for and sometimes attain, it is human love. But for those others who aspired beyond and above the human individual toward something they could not even imagine, there had been no answer.

A great piece of literature which reads as well today, and possibly better, as when it was written sixty years ago. A plague enters a North African town in modern times resulting in its quarantine from the rest of the world. The people and the town are stripped of normal routines and relationships as death and isolation take their tolls.

Camus writes beautifully and evokes emotions and introspection. He raises many questions about the foundations of society. The town and its people are suddenly taken out of time and what results is all forms of human nature. Camus creates a very real and believable world within a world where he expertly examines human nature. A great book which should be on all must-read lists.