Dueling Words

When Amanda Knox sold the publication rights to her memoir, there was a bit of controversy surrounding the auction, with publishers worried about how the public might perceive the book. Would it sell, or would it result in an unpleasant backlash that would prevent said publisher from turning a profit?

She's back at home doing rewrites and edits and such, but HarperCollins might have to push the budding writer to submit a completed manuscript a bit earlier than anticipated.

The father of murder victim Meredith Kercher, who doesn't believe that Ms. Knox is innocent, is set to put out his own version of events. The book is due for release on April 26, well before Ms. Knox's memoir hits the shelves.

It's a case of dueling words, but will the first to speak win the battle, or will the rebuttal prove so strong that Mr. Kercher will be left looking like an embittered father?

The British sided with the prosecution, in large part because the murder victim was a British student in Perugia. Americans tended to believe Ms. Knox, especially when the case became less a murder investigation and more an example of prosecutorial misconduct and incompetence run wild.

Mr. Kercher says his book, published by Hodder & Stoughton, is a celebration of his daughter's life, but if he fails to provide something sensational within the pages, the public won't buy it.

Profit will come from a detailed, first person account of the family's experiences with the Italian legal system, which failed them as much as it failed Amanda Knox. The book's blurb states that Mr. Kercher writes of his ongoing quest for justice, which will provide a very interesting counterpoint to Ms. Knox's experiences with that same lack of justice.

A man is currently in prison, serving time for the murder of Meredith Kercher. The Italians made such an incredible mess of the murder investigation and subsequent trial that Mr. Kercher can be seen as a Don Quixote, dreaming an impossible dream of uncovering the truth.

And that is the outcome of the battle over words, over whose version is the more accurate. No one can ever know.