Papillon Author:Henre Charriere Henre Charriere himself is Papillon convicted in Paris in 1931, aged 25 for a murder he had not committed, sentenced to life imprisonment in the penal colony of French Guiana. One thought obsessed him: escape. Forth-two days after his arrival in 1933 he made his first break, traveling on the open sea in a tiny boat. In desperate stages, 1,500 ... more »miles in all he reached Colombia. There he was recaptured by the French authorities and sentenced to two years in solitary confinement. Eventually he was sent to Devil's Island. No one had ever escaped from this notorious prison-no one until Papillon flung himself from a giant rock into the foaming sea. to float for days in the shrivering sun-his makeshift raft two sacks of coconuts. At last in 1945 he found sanctuary in Venezuela, of which country he is now a citizen. In the course of twelve years, he had undertaken nine daring escapes.....fantastic read!« less