Free: My Search for Meaning

Knox follows up Waiting to Be Heard with a stirring account of the years after her ordeal with the Italian justice system. In 2007, Knox was falsely accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher, a British exchange student with whom she’d shared a cottage in Perugia. DNA evidence eventually identified a burglar as Kercher’s rapist and killer, but not before police pressured Knox into implicating herself, leading to her arrest and incarceration. After she was exonerated in 2011 and released from prison, Knox “stumbled a lot trying to reintegrate in the world” before realizing that “being alone in pain was a choice I’d made, one that society had encouraged me in—but it had been my choice nonetheless.” She writes of finding support and meaning by connecting with other publicly vilified women, including Monica Lewinsky, and marrying, becoming a mother, and pursuing a career in journalism and criminal justice reform. Along the way, Knox is frank about her self-doubts (“I continue to ask myself if I am getting anywhere”), offering a diaristic account of her triumphs and setbacks rather than prescriptive advice for life after trauma. The result is a moving testament to resiliency. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME. (Mar.)