Night's Lies - Softcover

Bufalino, Gesualdo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002711222 ISBN 13: 9780002711227

Publisher: Harvill Press, 1991

Synopsis

In a Mediterranean island fortress-prison under the Bourbon monarchy, four political prisoners suspected of conspiracy spend their last night before execution, resurrecting their pasts, lifting the veil on lives of heroic hope and sordid ambition, bringing out the best and worst in themselves.

About this title

About the Author:

Gesualdo Bufalino was born at Comiso, Sicily, in 1920. He studied literature at Catania and Palermo, and was a teacher by profession, turning author only after his retirement in 1976. He started his first novel, The Plague-Sower, in 1950, but it was only in 1981, after taking the discarded manuscript out of the drawer and reworking it, that it was published; it won the Premio Campiello. This and other works, including Blind Argus ("a construct of time and memory, artful and full of delight" Scotsman) on which the translator, Patrick Creagh, has won the John Florio Prize. With this novel, Night's Lies, the author won Italy's top literary award, the Premio Strega.

From the Back Cover:

In an island fortress-prison four political prisoners, sentenced to death for plotting against the Bourbon monarchy, spend their last night before they go under the guillotine. As they see the scaffold set up in the courtyard, they each search back through their past to find some pattern that will give meaning to the impending sacrifice of their lives. The baron, the soldier, the poet, the student: each has a tale to tell, each has an interest in weaving a web of deception - but who is it who will, at the end, remain trapped in it?

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0002711222
• ISBN 13: 9780002711227
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 158