A Definitive List Of The Best Fictional Prison Book

By Debra Wood


When speaking of literature, it contains many branches and genres that are each identified by definitive qualities it contains. As the years go by, more genres are added to that growing list, some combinations of two genres and others a new one altogether. One of those is called prison literature, wherein the person who created the book was trapped or confined in a specific location against their will.

It generally encompasses all books that were written by authors who were trapped in a jail cell or in house arrest during the time of writing. The contents of these books often range from the experience of living in such condition, or are based on actual events that took place in a similar setting. For more information regarding this, you will find a short list of great Fictional Prison Book ever written below.

An iconic figure in the Realism movement is Fyodor Dostoyevsky. One of his earliest works is titled The House of the Dead and it emphasizes on the experiences of several convicts who were sentenced to spend time in an infamous camp in Siberia. While this is an important event in Siberian culture, the characters are purely fictional and are not based on any other stories.

Orange is the New Black is known mostly as a popular series, available in major streaming sites. However, what most people are not aware of, is that it was actually a book written by Piper Kerman. It is considered to be her memoir, following the experience of being imprisoned after being convicted of money laundering and drug trafficking.

A book that garnered some controversy is Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. It gained some notoriety during its time of release because it contained some implications and heavy references to the trials that took place in Moscow. Koestler has not made any comments towards it but nevertheless, the work received high praise and was even enlisted as his best work ever published.

Alias Grace is a multi nominated and award winning novel written by Margaret Atwood. It was based on a real story about a man and his housekeeper named Nancy Montgomery who were killed by servants that worked for Thomas Kinnear. The partners were discovered with one being sentenced to life imprisonment, while the other was hanged after their trial.

While most often remembered as a work of science fiction, The Star Rover still contained many elements of this kind of literature. Jack London is responsible for this work of art and elaborates on Darell, a man who used to work as a professor in a popular university. However, he was sentenced to prison after discovering that he killed a person. During which, he is subjected to torture by means of wearing a tight jacket that compresses all his body organs. As a means of escapism, he teaches himself to go into a trance state, where his soul and mind travels to different dimensions and planets.

Jean Genet is a French novelist and political activist who is the mastermind behind Our Lady of the Flowers. Its prose relies heavily on poetic influences and takes into account the journey of a man who goes travels through the Parisian underworld. Majority of its characters are homosexuals, who the main character meets while living on the outskirts of conventional society.

Memoirs from the Women Prison is by Nawal El Saadawi. It recounts the objectification and discrimination women experience during imprisonment. It focus on sexism forced upon them that made their time spent there twice as hard.




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