Book excerpt: Midnight Return picks up where Midnight Express left off. Billy Hayes leapt from prison isolation to international notoriety when the book about his five years in and escape from a Turkish prison became a worldwide bestseller, and an Academy Award-winning film. Midnight Return chronicles his struggles and triumphs in that transition, tracing Billy's journey from desperation to freedom, and even true love. It revisits his daring escape in more detail, and weaves in the harrowing story of his friend who remained behind and Billy's efforts to help free him. We take the ride with Billy as he sometimes stumbles along a path toward healing, self-knowledge, and a new life incorporating his hardest won lessons--to a place where he can say that being arrested and sentenced to life in prison was both the worst and the best thing that ever happened to him. In 1970 Billy Hayes was an English major who left college in search of adventures to write about, like his hero Jack London. He had a rude awakening when he was arrested at the airport in Istanbul trying to board a plane while carrying four pounds of hashish, and given a life sentence. After five brutal years, relentless efforts by his family to gain his release, and endless escape plotting, Billy took matters into his own hands and pulled off a daring escape to freedom. Soon after, he wrote Midnight Express.