Arriving in US and Italian bookstores soon: Amanda Knox's views on spirituality, and her memories of the September 11 attacks.
A book detailing the jailhouse conversations between Knox, the US student convicted of killing her flatmate, Meredith Kercher, and an Italian lawmaker will be released later this year.
Rocco Girlanda, who met Knox, 23, around last December, when she was sentenced to 26 years in jail, has kept a diary of their Perugia prison discussions. The material has formed the basis of Take Me With You – Talks with Amanda Knox in Prison.
Girlanda wanted to meet Knox and get to know her in order to lessen the diplomatic fallout from the trial, he said.
The 240-page book features letters and poetry Knox, whose appeal over the killing will begin on 24 November, sent him.
Girlanda says the pair, who have forged a friendship, never discussed the case. Instead, their talks centred around Knox's childhood in Seattle, her memories of 9/11 and her views on religion and spirituality as well as marriage, culture and religion.
And Knox herself, the protagonist in a sensational trial that gripped global media, also hopes to follow in the footsteps of infamous authors involved in trials or crimes like OJ Simpson, Charles Bronson, and Hugh Collins of becoming a writer after her release.
This ambition, and her "desire to adopt children, her love for Italy despite everything, the significance of friendship", are of course also detailed in the book.
"Everything grew from a desire to get to know an American girl, the same age as one of my daughters, who has found herself to be living in the most dramatic experience of her life," Girlanda writes .
"I think that after so many months, after so many meetings, I succeeded."
The work is being published first in Italy at the end of October. Proceeds will go to Girlanda's foundation, which promotes ties between the US and Italy. Presumably, the fact the case is not the focus of the book allows Knox to avoid any legal hurdles stopping convicted criminals from profiting from their crimes.
