Author(s): Henri Charriere

Biography & Memoir

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 suffered a 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 âÃÂàno 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 âÃÂàincluding 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.