A publishing bidding war began the moment that Amanda Knox walked free. Photogenic, sexually adventurous, naive, wrongfully imprisoned — it’s guaranteed to be a blockbuster to match The Count of Montecristo and The Shawshank Redemption, only its contents will be factual. The book was bought last night by Harper Collins for $4 million.
First-hand accounts of wrongful imprisonment are quite rare, especially when one considers how much coverage miscarriages of justice receive in the press. The most famous book of the genre is Papillon, published by Henri Charrière in 1969. It was recommended by Kwasi Kwarteng MP in our Bookbenchers feature last year, and I chanced upon a copy (translated from the French by Patrick O’Brien of Master and Commander fame) in an airport departure lounge over Christmas.
By no means is it great literature. Charrière’s dialogue is straight out of a bad Errol Flynn film, lots of ‘Stand with me lads’ and ‘Brothers! Don’t submit to the yoke’.
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