We will start with a personal favorite, Barabbas by Par Lagerkvist. Lagerkvist was a Swede, and he won the Nobel prize for literature in 1951. The short novel was translated into English that same year. Of course, Barabbas was the criminal who was released by Pontius Pilate instead of Jesus of Nazareth. This Biblical character then becomes Lagerkvist’s protagonist, and the novel traces Barabbas’s wonderings and wanderings for the rest of his life.
