Part 1, Search for the Father, first section (unnamed) Summary

The First Man by Albert Camus is an autobiographical novel that centers on the life of Jacques Cormery in Algiers, Algeria. Jacques' father dies when Jacques is just under a year old. Jacques goes in search of information about his mysterious father from various family members and old friends throughout Algiers. The novel interweaves present-day forty-year-old Jacques in 1954 and child Jacques in his Algiers childhood.

The book opens to the rolling expanse of the Algerian countryside. A wagon travels over a road, pulled by a horse, and full of furniture and other household items. The driver in the front seat is an Arab. There are also a French husband and his pregnant wife in the wagon. She is beautiful, and must be half Spanish. The husband worries because his...