"Briseadh na Cloiche air Oir an Fhàsaich: Iain Moireach agus Albert Camus" ("Breaking the Stone on the Desert's Edge: John Murray and Albert Camus")

In this chapter of a Scottish Gaelic publishing first (in offering in Gaelic a critical, theoretical appraisal of modern Scottish Gaelic literature in a comparative key) the author examines the thematic intertextual influences from Albert Camus to be found in the seminal short-stories of Lewis writer John Murray (Iain Moireach in Gaelic). Starting from a consideration of both writers as outsiders or peripheral citizens of metropolitan centres (Camus the pied-noir colon from 'French' Algeria and Murray the Gaelic-speaking Lewisman from the Outer Hebrides born to a mainland mother and a Highland Canadian veteran returning from WWI) the authors provides a close-reading of the short-stories of Murray by comparing some central themes and characterisations to those found in the short-stories and novels of Camus. The chapter, like the book, is written in Scottish Gaelic with all quotations from Camus presented in the French original with a translation into Gaelic provided by the author.