Nine top works of prison fiction

Nicci French is the pseudonym for the writing partnership of journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.

Their new novel is House of Correction.

At CrimeReads, they tagged nine great works--films and books--of prison fiction, including:

Kolyma Tales, by Varlam Shalamov

The greatest work of prison fiction? It might be this. The Gulag was almost its own country within the country of the Soviet Union and Shalamov, a poet, spent seventeen years there. When he was released he embarked on the almost insanely courageous process of writing about it while still living in the Soviet Union. With an entirely clear eye and a straightforward prose style, he portrayed a society of total cynicism, corruption and violence, with the tiniest moments of decency and love and even humor. The result was a devastating account of the Soviet system which had to be smuggled out of the country and published abroad in the 1970s. But his own health was broken by his years of imprisonment and his stories were only published in Russia in 1989, seven years after his death.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue