In between came Camus's two best-known works, "The Stranger" (1942), in which the collaborating sun, sea and sand play a deadly role, and "The Plague" (1947), a loose allegory of occupation (by rats) set in Oran, Algeria's second city.

WSJ: Book Review: Algerian Chronicles

My first encounter with North Africa was as a child, when my father told fascinating, if unnerving, tales from his wartime stops in Casablanca, Algiers, and Oran in 1943, courtesy of the U.S. Air Force, but I had never been there myself.

NPR: Historian Robert Satloff

The winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted by broadcaster Muriel Gray in Glasgow's Oran Mor venue on 21 March.

BBC: Wee Man actor Daniel Kerr, 12, gets Bafta nomination