Never Pass This Way Again

LePere, daughter of art collector Joseph Hirshhorn, details the nightmare conditions of her brief confinement in a Turkish prison in 1983. Charged with attempting to leave the country with ancient artifacts in her baggage, she failed to convince her accusers that she was merely an American tourist on shore leave from a cruise ship, who had been coerced into purchasing souvenirs by a street peddler. LePere's diurnal progress through the mazes of the Turkish judicial system reflect not only her experience of culture clash but her bewilderment at being helpless. Handicapped by her inability to communicate fluently, she nevertheless made friendships with her jail mates, her lawyersTurkish and Americanand the Engish-speaking community. The influence of the Hirshhorn family engineered her escape before she was tried. Not an indictment of the Turkish people, the book is rather a warning to travelers in foreign lands. NBC-TV Special. (May 27)