'The Wall', the lead story in this collection, introduces three
political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. Through the
gaze of an impartial doctor--seemingly there for the men's solace--their
mental descent is charted in exquisite, often harrowing detail. And as
the morning draws inexorably closer, the men cross the psychological
wall between life and death, long before the first shot rings out. This
brilliant snapshot of life in anguish is the perfect introduction to a
collection of stories where the neurosis of the modern world is mirrored
in the lives of the people that inhabit it . This is an unexpurgated
edition translated from the French by Lloyd Alexander.