Orange Is the New Black

With a respectable career, a loving boyfriend, and a comfortable life in New York, Piper Kerman is a world away from the reckless young woman who once delivered a suitcase of drug money. But a decade later, that single indiscretion catches up to her. Convicted of a long-forgotten crime, the well-educated Smith College graduate is sentenced to fifteen months in a federal correctional institution, a place with its own culture, codes, and community. She is forced to trade her designer clothes for an orange jumpsuit and navigate a strange new reality.

Inside, Kerman confronts the daily routines and arbitrary rules of prison life, but more importantly, she meets the women who inhabit this world alongside her. These are women from all walks of life, whose stories of generosity, hardship, and resilience challenge her perceptions and force her to examine her own privilege. The experience is a journey into a hidden society where she must learn to survive, form unexpected alliances, and come to terms with the choices that led her there. This memoir offers a sharp, often humorous, and deeply human look at the community of women in an American prison.