Hell Is a Very Small Place

By Jean Casella (editor), James Ridgeway (editor), Sarah Shourd (editor)

Book cover of Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement

Book description

Media attention for hardcover: Book got rave reviews in the New York Review of Books, Los Angeles Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, and elsewhere. The work that Solitary Watch did to collect the material in this book was profiled in the New Yorker "Talk of the Town" section
Ongoing…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Hell Is a Very Small Place as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

The American carceral system is notorious for long, senseless solitary confinement sentences. While this is now public knowledge, we have actually heard very little from the people who have undergone such brutality. Hell Is A Very Small Place aims to give a platform to these people. This book is an invaluable collection of first-person accounts, composed by the people who lived this horror, many of them for unconscionably long periods. In their distinct voices, they articulate myriad ways time in solitary leads to the destruction of the human soul.  

From Amir's list on to understand solitary confinement.

Want books like Hell Is a Very Small Place?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 52 books like Hell Is a Very Small Place.

Browse books like Hell Is a Very Small Place

Book cover of In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison
Book cover of The American Notes
Book cover of A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,588

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in solitary confinement, false imprisonment, and the United Nations?