If This is a Man by Primo Levi (1947)

A first hand account of life in life in Auschwitz, Primo Levi relates his personal experience of the death camps with poetry, compassion, anger, factual detail and philosophical reflection. The title and epigram ask the reader, 'you who live safe in your warm houses', to consider 'if this is a man/ who works in mud / who knows no peace / who fights for a crust of bread' and admonishes us to 'never forget that this has happened'. Thus begins an emotive and unforgettable account of man's inhumanity to man only briefly illuminated by kindness and hope.

Style/structure: memoir

Themes: humanity, evil, God, survival.

An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan (1991)

On the 11th of April, 1986, the Irishman Brian Keenan was kidnapped by terrorists in Beirut, Lebanon. He was incarcerated in a cell with the British journalist John McCarthy for the next four and a half years. Keenan's memoir depicts the brutality of their captors but also the growing friendship between Keenan and McCarthy, a friendship which helped them to survive their ordeal.

Style/structure: memoir

Some Other Rainbow by John McCarthy and Jill Morrell (1994)

In April 1986 the British journalist John McCarthy was kidnapped by the Lebanese hostage-takers and incarcerated for the next five years. Following his release in 1991, McCarthy and his former fiancee Jill Morrell wrote an account both of his imprisonment in the cell he shared with the Irish writer Brian Keenan, and the efforts of Morrell to secure his release.

Style/structure: memoir

Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (1995)

This huge autobiography encompasses Mandela's childhood, education, his role as a member of the African National Congress, his anti-apartheid activities, his trial, his 27 year imprisonment on the infamous Robben Island and his celebrated release in 1990.

Style/structure: autobiography, bildungsroman