Description

In this nocturnal collection, a weary narrator offers unsettling vignettes for those who cannot find sleep. The opening piece plunges us into the mind of Portugal’s last executioner, a man wrestling with the remnants of a brutal profession as the law that once sanctioned it fades. Through his conflicted reflections—ranging from the scaffold ritual to a silent tear on his cheek—the story examines the uneasy balance between duty, conscience, and the echo of lives taken.

The surrounding tales keep the late‑night mood, moving from a disastrous end for a young noble and a lost girl wandering the streets to a comic trial that ends in laughter, each narrated with irony and melancholy. The language drips with 19th‑century legal jargon and poetic melancholy, creating a vivid backdrop that feels both historically rooted and oddly contemporary for modern ears. For anyone lying awake pondering morality, fate, and the absurdities of law, these stories offer a quiet, thought‑provoking companion through the restless hours.

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