Night's lies is an immensely satisfying novel to read. Four political prisoners sentenced to death decide to spend their last night alive by each telling a story.The governor of the prison, in a last attempt to get the prisoners to confess the identity of a mysterious head conspirator known only as "God the father" offers them a secret ballot so that they may be tempted to betray their leader to save their own lives. The governor's cunning pits one man's will to live against the other's, one man's fear of betrayal against the other's. If the name of "God the father" appears on one of the slips in the ballot box come morning, the men will be spared execution by the guillotine and exiled to Argentina instead.

"Let us therefore recount, or else invent, our most memorable hour. Above all I dare to hope that from the telling there might emerge some reason for this destiny of ours, that we might deduce why we are dying and arrive at a hypothesis, at least, regarding that mystery, which the spectacle of the things surrounding us has been; and that we might find some reason for excusing either God or ourselves, before the break of day."

Brother Cirillo is another prisoner who awaits execution and shares his last night with the baron, the soldier, the poet and the student.

The four of them eye the other with some awe, not daring to disturb him. All their lives they have heard talk of that fearsome old man, having even at one point discussed amongst themselves whether they ought not to draw him into their ranks to aid the common struggle.

Thus begins the storytelling. In view of the scaffold that will almost surely take their lives the four recount their tales. The others can only guess how true the different stories are and at the motives for choosing the stories they do. Likewise the reader is left to wonder why the baron, the soldier, the poet and the student choose the stories they do. Each story is a fascinating tale in its own right. Woven together to attempt to explain how the four got to where they are is an even more fascinating tale. Or might the stories each be a little too incredible. Night's Lies is a gripping narrative about the telling of stories and the conclusions one can reach from them. A highly entertaining novel which will both exercise and stimulate the brain cells.