10 Best Non-Horror Stephen King Stories You Must Read

This novella, found in the collection Different Seasons, is probably the King story that provokes the most disbelief in people when they're told who wrote it. In fact, King himself has told a story about a woman who told him, to his face, that he didn't write it. He only writes horror stories!

The movie adaptation, starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, is a cult classic (it under-performed at the box office but was a very strong rental title), but the prose story is worth your time.

Andy Dufresne, convicted of the double murder of his wife and her lover, is sent to Shawshank State Penitentiary to serve two consecutive life sentences. He meets Red (in the novella, a white Irishman with red hair, hence the name), a prisoner serving a life sentence. The two become close friends, with the story being narrated Red himself.

Over a span of decades, we see him quietly, diligently using this time to his advantage and to gain trust; taking care of financial paperwork for the prison, gaining funding for a prison library, and even helping a number of fellow prisoners gain diplomas. All this good will towards the prison is then over-shadowed by a revelation from another prisoner who inadvertently tells him that another prison has confessed to Dufresne's crimes. Warden Norton, however, gets wind of this development and has the prisoner Dufresne heard this golden ticket from killed. No forthcoming legitimate means of escape now.

Up until now, the story's main theme had been perseverance. Now, it is hope. Handily, Dufresne had been digging a tunnel to freedom from his cell block, which he online occupied (all that good work for the prison paid off).

In the end, Dufresne escapes. His belly-crawl through miles of s**t results in an incredibly uplifting ending to a powerful story of friendship and how dreams can keep us moving forward.