Orange Is the New Black: Book vs. Series
Created by Jenji Kohan, Orange Is the New Black (2013) is based on Piper Kerman’s 2010 memoir. Piper Chapman’s arrival at a women’s prison introduces an ensemble of inmates navigating friendships, rivalries, and life under confinement.
From Books Adapted
Which books each season covers
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Seven seasons draw on one memoir
All seven seasons use one memoir as their starting point. The series fictionalizes Kerman's experiences from the outset.
| Season | Book and story covered |
|---|---|
| 1 | Kerman's memoir supplies Piper's conviction, arrival, and adjustment to prison. The series adds fictional conflicts and inmates' backstories. |
| 2 | Still draws on the same memoir, including Piper's transfer to Chicago. The stories at Litchfield increasingly follow the invented ensemble. |
| 3 | Original stories using the series' characters, including Litchfield's takeover by a private company. No second book is being adapted. |
| 4 | Continues the original prison story under private ownership. |
| 5 | An original story about a prison riot, told over three days. |
| 6 | An original continuation set in maximum security. |
| 7 | Concludes the television story, including life after release and immigration detention. |
| A guide, not an exact match: shows move scenes and storylines between books and seasons. | |
There are no further volumes of this memoir awaiting adaptation. Kerman's account is selectively adapted, with incidents omitted or rewritten.
What changed from the book
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The inmates' flashbacks go beyond what Piper could tell
Kerman's memoir follows her experience. The series can leave Piper behind and show other women's lives before prison. Those backstories were invented for the adaptation. Kohan wanted Piper to provide a way into a much larger story about women of different ages and backgrounds.
The flashbacks also let the audience see people outside the identities they adopt in prison. Kohan said the structure began partly as a way to get out of the prison setting, then became a way to show more of each character's life.
Even incidents taken from the book can become different conflicts. Kerman did insult the woman who ran the kitchen, but she was not denied food as Piper is in the series. She repaired the woman's uncomfortable bed to make amends. Kerman also told Fresh Air that, unlike Chapman, she had never been held in solitary confinement.
About the book and the series
- Author
- Piper Kerman
- Year
- 2010
- Pages
- 327Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 11 hr 11 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Cassandra Campbell
A drug-money delivery from her twenties catches up with Piper Kerman years after she has built a settled life. Serving a federal prison sentence, she learns how to get through counts, work assignments, and separation from her family with help from women whose lives differ sharply from her own. Her memoir examines the friendships that sustain her and the advantages she will return to that many fellow prisoners do not have.
- Creator
- Jenji Kohan
- Writer
- Jenji Kohan
- Year
- 2013–2019
- Episode
- 1 hrWatch on Amazon
- Seasons
- 7
- Episodes
- 91
- Network
- Netflix
- Cast
- Taylor Schilling, Kate Mulgrew, Laura Prepon, Uzo Aduba
- Genre
- comedy drama, Crime, LGBT-related
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Piper Chapman enters a women’s prison expecting to serve her sentence quietly and return to her fiancé, only to find her former girlfriend Alex among the inmates. Learning whom to trust draws her into alliances and rivalries she cannot keep at a distance. The lives of the other women gradually take center stage, revealing how their histories, relationships, and prospects are shaped by the institution holding them.
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