A classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure - a bestselling phenomenon of the 1960s Condemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charrière (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 grueling 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 welcome free of European Papillon is filled with tension, adventure and high excitement. It is also one of the most vivid stories of human endurance ever written. Henri Charrière died in 1973 at the age of 66. - A brilliant and exciting true-life tale of one of history's greatest escape artists. - Charriere's classic biography has been in print since the 60s and sold close to 10,000 copies last year alone

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