The Guillotine Choice

In 1920's French-controlled Algeria, Kaci is in the frame for the brutal murder of his French boss. Kaci is faced with a stark choice: name his cousin as the killer and win his freedom, or keep quiet and face 25 years’ hard labor in the infamous Devil’s Island penal colony. Either way, one of them is destined for the world’s worst prison—a hell on earth that few men survive. The Guillotine Choice is a novel based on the true story of an Algerian man’s years in one of history’s most notorious prisons. A real-life Shawshank Redemption, it is an inspirational story of endurance and the triumph of dignity over despair in almost unimaginably horrific conditions.

Michael J Malone is a poet and author. He is the author of Blood Tears and Carnegie’s Call, and has had more than 150 poems published in the UK literary press. Bashir Saoudi is a computer engineer in Cambridge.