Amanda Knox spent four years in a foreign prison for a crime she did not commit.
In the fall of 2007, the 20-year-old college coed left Seattle to study abroad in Italy, but her life was shattered when her roommate was murdered in their apartment.
After a controversial trial, Amanda was convicted and imprisoned. But in 2011, an appeals court overturned the decision and vacated the murder charge. Free at last, she returned home to the U.S., where she has remained silent, until now.
Filled with details first recorded in the journals Knox kept while in Italy, Waiting to Be Heard is a remarkable story of innocence, resilience, and courage, and of one young woman’s hard-fought battle to overcome injustice and win the freedom she deserved.
With intelligence, grace, and candor, Amanda Knox tells the full story of her harrowing ordeal in Italy —a labyrinthine nightmare of crime and punishment, innocence and vindication—and of the unwavering support of family and friends who tirelessly worked to help her win her freedom.
Waiting to Be Heard includes 24 pages of color photographs.
From Publishers Weekly
Amanda Knox, an American college student who was charged with the brutal murder of her roommate while studying in Italy, recounts her four years of imprisonment and the dizzying series of legal roadblocks to her eventual release in 2011. As the narrator of this audio edition, Knox sounds authentic, sincere, and vulnerable. In early portions of the narrative related to the crime scene and arrest, her emotions are muted, conveying the same deer-in-the-headlights reaction for which she was skewered in media coverage at the time. Yet, while recounting her experiences in prison after being convicted, when she grasped the gravity of the situation, Knox conveys her sense of desperation during a process in which the cards seemed hopelessly stacked against her. Her conversations with a sympathetic prison chaplain and with her deeply loyal family and close friends are especially moving. In her recitation of legal details, Knox falls into occasional lapses in pronunciation, but given the weight of the personal aspects of her performance, these flaws prove minor and don't detract from the listening experience. A Harper hardcover. (Apr.) --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
From Booklist
Much has already been written about Amanda Knox: sensational international tabloid stories dubbing her “Foxy Knoxy”; numerous books examining the trial wherein Knox stood accused of murdering Meredith Kercher, her English roommate, while she was studying abroad in Perugia, Italy; a sympathetic tell-all written by her ex-boyfriend, another among the accused; and even a Lifetime movie. But amid the clamoring din, Knox pieced together her defense, not only against the murder accusation and 2009 conviction but also her condemnation in the court of public opinion. Drawing from journals, letters, court testimony, and other written records, Knox recounts how the trip abroad she thought would help her grow up became a kind of nightmare coming-of-age in which she was violently stripped of her naiveté and forced to confront her misplaced trust in Perugian officials. She also addresses actions she regrets, including the false accusation she leveled against her former boss. In clear, concise language, Knox offers the definitive story of her trial thus far. However, the saga continues. As of March 2013, her 2011 acquittal had been overturned by Italy’s highest criminal court. Required reading for those who can’t get enough of this headline-grabbing saga. --Courtney Jones
