Voyage au bout de la nuit

A novel narrated by Ferdinand Bardamu, a young Parisian who drifts into the First World War almost by accident. After the trenches he travels to colonial Africa, then to the United States, and finally returns to France to work as a doctor in a poor suburb. Along the way he meets the sinister and comic figure of Robinson, who keeps reappearing in his life. The book is a bleak, darkly funny journey through war, greed, poverty and illness, told in a vivid, conversational voice. It shook readers on publication and remains one of the great modern French novels.