Papillon

A memoir of prison breaks and adventure.A classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure -- a bestselling phenomenon
of the 1960s Condemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charriere
(nicknamed Papillon) was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty-two
days after his arrival he made his first break, travelling a thousand gruelling
miles in an open boat. Recaptured, he went into solitary confinement and was
sent eventually to Devil's Island, a hell-hole of disease and brutality. No one
had ever escaped from this notorious prison -- no one until Papillon took to
the shark-infested sea supported only by a makeshift coconut-sack raft. In
thirteen years he made nine daring escapes, living through many fantastic
adventures while on the run -- including a sojourn with South American Indians
whose women Papillon found welcomely free of European restraints! Papillon is
filled with tension, adventure and high excitement. It is also one of the most
vivid stories of human endurance ever written. Henri Charriere died in 1973 at
the age of 66.