The Preread Analysis

Night's Lies by Gesualdo Buffalino is a historical fiction novel set in the time of the Bourbon Monarchy in France. Though I did not know when this time was, after wikipedia-ing I found that the Bourbon Monarchy took place in 1830 and ending at the start of the french revolution of 1848.  I know from reviews that this book is the stories of four prisoners who are senteced to death.  These prisoners were all sentenced to death for plotting against the Bourbon Monarchy.  The prisoners are a student, a baron, a soldier, and a poet.  They are told that if they reveal who is the leader of their group then the rest will go free.  They tell stories to try and prove their innocence.  The stories told by the criminals conflict, and the reader is forced to make assumptions on who is the leader.

This information allows me to make many predictions about this text.  I predict that because the people are coming up on a time of revolution, none of the prisoners will be spared.  The people are getting aggrivated with the way they are living and want change, their anger gives the prisoners less of a chance for the guards to feel compassion for them and they most likely wouldnt want to deal with the problem of sorting out all of the lies so the simplest solution for that time period would be to send them all to the guillotine.  I also predict that none of the prisoners will want to reveal the identity of their leader.  I think this because everyone knows that everybody hates tattletales.  And because no one wantes to be hated, no one would be a tattletale.  This story is sure to be interesting with the mystery of who is the leader.  The reader will be forced to make their own assumptions and answers to questions.

My reading schedule is to read to page 40 by March 4th, to page 80 by March 11th, to page 120 by March 18th, and by March 25th I will finish the book.