Books List

Behind These Walls: Prison Literature

By Damian Van Denburgh

Prisons—both physical and psychological—are the real subjects of these books. Each one examines the limits of cruelty and endurance and, in some cases, the rare occurrence of redemption and the creation of newly forged freedom.

CRITICAL LIST

The Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius

On the Yard

Malcolm Braly

Falconer

John Cheever

Memoirs from the House of the Dead

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Miracle of the Rose

Jean Genet

Yesterday Will Make You Cry

Chester Himes

Darkness at Noon

Arthur Koestler

Plowing the Dark

Richard Powers

Kiss of the Spider Woman

Manuel Puig

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

De Profundis

Oscar Wilde