This short book is set in the late 40s in US state Louisiana. One young black men was accidently involved in liquer store robbery and after shooting and killing, he was the only one that stayed alive. In those times, this was enough to put him in jail and to punish him with death. Story begins when court reaches conclusion and acknowledges him guilty. This book tells us a story how can a kid become a men in a very short time in jail, morover, he won't be the only one that needs a lesson. When I finished this book, I wanted to find some links on the net to put them here and by the way I discovered that there is also movie that was based on this book, which I'm sure I will get into one day. wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Lesson_Before_Dying movie based on this book:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179940/