Amanda Knox Signs $4 Million Book Deal

Amanda Knox was arrested on murder charges in 2007, convicted in 2009, freed in 2011 (after that initial conviction was overturned) -- and now, she's ready to tell her story. The New York Times reports that Knox, 24, has sold her memoir to HarperCollins for nearly $4 million after a heated, days-long bidding war between publishing houses.

"No one has yet heard Amanda Knox's own account of what happened, and this book will give Knox an opportunity to tell the story in full detail, for the first time," the publisher said in a statement. "It will be the story of a crime and a trial, but also a moving account of a young woman's struggle to cope with a nightmarish ordeal that placed her at the center of a media storm, and led to her imprisonment."

Knox, a native of Washington state, had just begun studying abroad in Italy when she and her then-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were accused of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in a sex game gone wrong in 2007. The case became highly controversial both in Italy and abroad; Knox was painted by the tabloids as a promiscuous, immoral manipulator ("Foxy Knoxy"), but was convicted on evidence and testimony that appeared circumstantial and faulty. In October 2011, she and Sollecito won their appeal hearing and were freed from prison. However, there are still many unanswered questions, with people wondering what really happened -- and, for that matter, who Knox really is.

HarperCollins promises that Knox will give "a full and unflinching account of the events that led to her arrest in Perugia and her struggles with the complexities of the Italian judicial system," including "never before-told details surrounding her case." The publisher also reveals that Knox kept journals in prison, which will be used in the writing of the book.

Although Knox will now be a multimillionaire, her legal troubles aren't over yet: Italian prosecutors are appealing for a new trial this week, in hopes of proving that Knox and Sollecito (who is reportedly shopping his own memoir in Italy) are actually guilty.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/amanda-knox-signs-4-million-book-deal/1-a-429014

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