Compelling, life-affirming' - Helen Fitzgerald. In 1920s 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 labour 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.