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 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 from 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.
