Part of the Penguin Classics campaign celebrating 100 years of Albert Camus, A Sea Close By reveals the writer as a sensual witness of landscapes, the sea and sailing. It is a light, summery day-dream.

Accompanying The Sea Close By is the essay Summer in Algiers, a lovesong to his Mediterranean childhood.

'The bay, the sun, the red and white games on the seaward terraces, the flowers and sports stadiums, the cool-legged girls.'