A classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure – a bestselling phenomenon of the 1960scondemned 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 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 writtenhenri charrière died in 19