Le Dernier Jour D'un Condamné, Victor Hugo

A condemned man sits in a cell in France, counting the hours until his execution. With no one to argue with, he speaks directly to the reader and sets down the thoughts that crowd his mind as the morning approaches. He recalls the ordinary world he is about to lose, the crowd that would gather to watch, and the way his thoughts swing between terror, hope and a bitter sense of injustice. Rather than presenting himself as a figure of stern resolve, he clings to small details that make him human. Written as a short, intense first-person account, the book is less a story of crime than a close look at a mind facing the state's final judgment and at the question of whether such a punishment can ever be justified.