Waiting To Be Heard
By Amanda Knox
A story that monopolized international headlines for months
at a time over the course of four years couldn’t tell the whole story. A University of Washington student, who
dreamed through her childhood of spending a year studying in Italy, settles
into a life in Perugia, Italy. Tragic,
brutal murder of one of her housemates turns Amanda Knox’s dream into the
darkest, life-altering nightmare that took years to resolve, enveloping her
beloved family and friends and forever impacting their lives. This memoir shows an isolated twenty year old
who must somehow reach deep into her heart and soul to find courage,
inspiration and hope.
I was so moved by the talent and skill of her writing. I mean, this author can really write. I felt the naïveté, the giddiness, the
youthful freedom at the start of her dream adventure. Then, I felt the accelerating horror as
destiny takes hold. And then, I was
swept up in the diametrically opposed emotions as she’s jailed in Italy, put on
trial in a media surroundsound, and convicted with a twenty-six year sentence
for a crime she did not commit.
At the heart is Meredith Kercher who will not be
forgotten. What the reader learns about
her crystallizes what a beautiful young woman’s life was stolen so young. Amanda writes anecdotes about the short time
she and Meredith had together as friends.
What a nice, naïve, giving young woman, also joyful with her own dreams
and aspirations and part of a loving family and circle of friends left devastated.
The author is not only able to vividly record her own
experiences, but she also gives glimpses into the experience of her family,
friends, and others including Rafaelle Sollecito who was also wrongly
convicted. The reader is filled with
compassion for them all for what they also endured. You can vividly imagine the horror to be in
Seattle on the other end of Amanda’s evolving phone calls home, to uproot your
life, maintain a residence in Italy to be as near as possible for years, watch
your finances dwindle, and struggle to maintain hope your daughter would be
freed.
It takes an incredible storyteller to write about a well
known, true event in a way that the reader is carried along and kept in the
moment on each page. I found myself
hoping for triumphs and fearing tragedy and thinking the next page would be
different, as if history can be changed.
Amanda Knox takes us on an insightful tour of the long trip from agony
to ecstasy. The author is never
self-pitying, never represents herself as a victim. Her depiction of the Italian police, the
trials, her attorneys, her guards, and others she was in jail with is all
riveting.
Today the author lives in Seattle and works with the
Innocence Project, which is a non-profit dedicated to putting an end to
wrongful convictions. Exonerated by
Italy’s highest court in 2015, almost four years after she was acquitted of
murder, you can believe that such an effort would be close to Amanda Knox’s
heart. She’s also attended college
courses and is an Arts Correspondent at the West Seattle Herald. She paints a picture of a person who does not
fear life, but relishes it.
