Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

"It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured."

Roberts' own life of crime had begun in Australia in the late Seventies, after his marriage collapsed and he lost custody of his daughter. He developed a heroin addiction and turned to bank robbery to finance his habit.

He was arrested in 1978 and spent two years inside before his escape. He arrived in Mumbai on a forged passport shortly after his daring prison escape from Melbourne’s Pentridge Prison. He expected to stay for two days before travelling on to Germany. In the end, he was there for eight years.

In 1990, after a decade on the run, Roberts was finally recaptured in Frankfurt. He spent 19 months in solitary confinement before being extradited to Australia. Back in prison, he began work on turning the extraordinary events of his life into a novel. In 1996 he was released from prison, and the 933 page semi-autobiography was finally released in 2003.