Devil’s Island: a reality or a myth? The world became acutely aware of the reality and history of this infamously fabled place when the book Papillon was published in 1970, depicting the isolation and rampant mistreatment of prisoners in this equatorial prison. Devil's Island, or L’Ile du Diable, is located in French Guiana, a "departement" or provincial state of France, in the northern part of South America, just the other side of the Brazilian border.