Papillon

Papillon is one of the most exciting and remarkable human documents ever published. It is the story of one man's incredible triumph over conditions of indescribable adversity, over the brutal impositions of penal settlement and the total deprivation of liberty.

Condemned in 1931 for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charriere, nicknamed Papillon was transported to French Guiana. One thought obsessed him: Escape. Forty-two days after his arrival he made his first break, traveling in an open boat a thousand miles to Columbia. Recaptured, he was placed in solitary confinement and sent eventually to Devil's Island. No one had ever escaped from this notorious prison – no one until Papillon took to the open sea supported by two floating sacks of coconuts. In the course of thirteen years he made nine daring escapes in all.

In this book he vividly reconstructs the breaks for freedom and the fantastic characters that he experienced; he recalls the colorful and ruthless characters who were his his fellow prisoners; and recounts the misery and horror of the penal settlement – the years in solitary confinement, fighting against the specter of madness; the tiny cramped cell that filled with sea water at high tide, when his only companions were centipedes were rats and centipedes; the sadism of prison wardens and the unchecked murders among convicts; the rampaging illnesses and the lack of proper treatment; the cheapness of life and the fading prospect of freedom; the complete annihilation of human values.

Yet Papillon is a reaffirmation of human ingenuity and the iron will to survive against even the most appalling conditions. Told in a spare simple, and riveting way, it is a book filled with tension, adventure and high excitement.