Shantaram is a semi-autobiographical story. The blurb below kind of describes the book, but doesn't really do it justice. Just trust me, if you start reading this book you won't want to do anything else for a couple of weeks at least.
"In 1978, gifted student and writer Greg Roberts turned to heroin when his marriage collapsed, feeding his addiction with a string of robberies. Caught and convicted, he was given a nineteen-year sentence. After two years, he escaped from a maximum- security prison, spending the next ten years on the run as Australia's most wanted man. Hiding in Bombay, he established a medical clinic for slum- dwellers, worked in the Bollywood film industry and served time in the notorious Arthur Road prison. He was recruited by one of the most charismatic branches of the Bombay mafia for whom he worked as a forger, counterfeiter, and smuggler, and fought alongside a unit of mujaheddin guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan. His debut novel, SHANTARAM, is based on this ten-year period of his life in Bombay. The result is an epic tale of slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison torture, mafia gang wars and Bollywood films. A gripping adventure story, SHANTARAM is also a superbly written meditation on good and evil and an authentic evocation of Bombay life."
In a similar vein I'd also recommend Papillion and Henri Charriere and As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me by JM Bauer.
Papillon was famously made into an excellent movie with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Tells Charrieres story of his wrongful conviction for murder and subsequent exile to a penal colony in South America. He makes his first escape attempt after just 42 days. The next few years are extraordinary, with him making several escapes - some more successful than others - his time in solitary confinement, living with a native tribe, and eventual escape to Venezuela.
As Far As My Feet Will Carry Me is another true story of a German soldier, Clemens Forell, captured by the Russians near the end of World War 2. He is exiled to a Siberian Gulag where he and several thousand other prisoners are slowly worked to death. He escapes and then walks the 8000 mile route across the frozen tundra to try and get home, with the Russian authorities, bounty hunters, etc all trying to catch him.

Slow down...