The Fatal Gift of Beauty: The Trials of Amanda Knox

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More About This Book

Overview

   The sexually violent murder of twenty-one-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, on the night of November 1, 2007, became an international sensation when one of Kercher’s housemates, twenty-year-old Seattle native Amanda Knox, as well as her Italian boyfriend and a troubled local man Knox said she “vaguely” knew, was arrested and charged with the murder. The Fatal Gift of Beauty is award-winning author and journalist Nina Burleigh’s mesmerizing literary investigation of the murder, the controversial prosecution, the conviction and twenty-six-year sentence of Knox, the machinations of Italian justice, and the underground depravity and clash of cultures in one of central -Italy’s most beloved cities.

      When Perugia authorities concluded that the murder was part of a dark, twisted rite—a “sex game”—led by the American with an uncanny resemblance to Perugia’s Madonna, they unleashed a media frenzy from Rome to London to New York and Seattle. The story drew an international cult obsessed with “Foxy Knoxy,” a pretty honor student on a junior year abroad, who either woke up one morning into a nightmare of superstition and misogyny—the dark side of Italy—or participated in something unspeakable.

      The investigation begins in the old stone cottage overlooking bucolic olive groves where Kercher’s body was found in her locked bedroom. It winds through the shadowy, arched alleys of Perugia, a city of art that is also a magnet for tens of thousands of students who frequent its bars, clubs, and drug bazaar on the steps of the Duomo. It climaxes in an up-close account of Italy’s dysfunctional legal system, as the trial slowly unfolds at the town’s Tribunale, and the prosecution’s thunderous final appeal to God before the quivering girl defendant resembles a scene from the Inquisition. 

      To reveal what actually happened on that terrible night after Halloween, Nina Burleigh lived in Perugia, attended the trial, and corresponded with the incarcerated defendants. She also delved deeply into the history, secrets, and customs of Perugia, renowned equally for its Etruscan tunnels, early Christian art, medieval sorcerers, and pagan roots.

      The Fatal Gift of Beauty is a thoughtful, compelling examination of an enduring mystery, an ancient, storied place, and a disquieting facet of Italian culture: an obsession with female eroticism. It is also an acute window into the minds and personalities of the accused killers and of the conservative Italian magistrate striving to make sense of an inexplicable act of evil. But at its core is an indelible portrait of Amanda Knox, the strangely childlike, enigmatic beauty, whose photogenic face became the focal point of international speculation about the shadow side of youth and freedom.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
The 2007 murder of 22-year-old British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy, captured the world's attention because of the woman eventually convicted of killing her: 20-year-old Seattle native and fellow student Amanda Knox. Burleigh (Mirage: Napoleon's Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt) examines the intertwined lives of the students and the media circus surrounding the trial in this powerful example of narrative nonfiction. In July 2007, Knox moved into a house shared with Kercher and two older Italian women. On November 2, Kercher was found with her throat slit in her bedroom, and Knox and Raffaele Sollecito—whom she'd started seeing only a few days earlier—were first on the scene. Giuliano Mignini, the notoriously tough Perugian prosecutor, charged them with murder, adding their acquaintance Rudy Guede when evidence placed him at the crime scene. The protracted trial was awash with what Burleigh describes as faulty forensic evidence and testimony that was more rumor than substantiated fact, but Knox was convicted and sentenced to 26 years in prison; she is appealing her conviction. Burleigh, who parses how the Knox trial was perhaps tainted, still presents a fair and unbiased portrait of a girl adrift in a foreign legal system and a culture rife with preconceptions about young American women, 15 b&w photos; 2 maps. (Aug.)
Library Journal
On November 1, 2007, Meredith Kercher, a British student at the University of Perugia, was found sexually assaulted and murdered in an apartment she shared with American student Amanda Knox and two other women. Knox, along with boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, was eventually convicted of helping a local named Rudy Guede murder Kercher when she resisted his advances. Amid a firestorm of media coverage, allegations were made that the investigation was botched; counterallegations said that portrayals of Knox as a victim were unwarranted. Here, journalist/author Burleigh (e.g., Unholy Business) reconstructs a murder case that has proved to be about much more than murder. There will be interest.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780307588586
  • Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 8/2/2011
  • Pages: 352
  • Sales rank: 118,874
  • Product dimensions: 9.08 (w) x 6.74 (h) x 1.12 (d)

Meet the Author

Nina Burleigh is the author of Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed, and Forgery in the Holy Land, A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer, and two other books. She has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time and is a contributing editor at Elle. She has resided in France, Italy, and the Middle East and now lives in New York.

Table of Contents

Dramatis Personae xvii

Timeline xxiii

Prologue: Mezzanotte 1

Part 1 Etruscan Gate

1 Cronaca Nera 11

2 Slave 17

3 Seattle 25

4 Perugia 35

Part 2 Piazza

5 American Girl 51

6 Roommates 66

7 The Baron 84

8 The Vortex 100

9 Vendemmia 119

10 Hallowtide 131

Part 3 City of Spires

11 Mignini 145

12 Questura 168

13 La Signora del Gioco 212

Part 4 The Ancient Wall

14 The Dream Teams 225

15 Tribunale 240

16 Capanne 280

Notes on Sources and Methods 307

Acknowledgments 317

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 13 )

Rating Distribution

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(6)

4 Star

(4)

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Sort by: Showing all of 13 Customer Reviews

  • Posted October 11, 2011

    Keen analysis of the cultures and personalities which clashed in Perugia

    This isn't as much about the crime specifically and all it's details as it is about how the players' cultures and backgrounds came together in the aftermath of a horrible tragedy to, in my opinion, put two innocent people in jail for 4 years. It's about the characters involved- who they were, where they came from, mistakes they made, beliefs which shaped interactions and decisions. Such background and appraisal was exactly what I was looking for. The book is well written, detailed but a quick read.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted October 8, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Great Overview of the Case!

    I was very excited that I got to read this book. I've been very interested in this particular case. We all know the ending to the story by now but this book was still very interesting nonetheless.

    This book is still a 'true crime' book but Burleigh really delves into so much more than the crime itself. She looks at Perugia and Italy and the factors in those environments that added to the fervor with which this case was watched from the very beginning. This was interesting in some places but in other places, it was hard to get through because it was just so much information and didn't seem to really be adding to the overall understanding of everything that happened.

    Still this book did give a little insight into the various players in this murder case, which helped me to better understand some of the possible motives behind what happened with not only the accused but those for and against the accused.

    1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted September 29, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    better than I expected

    this book is more about Italy than Amanda, the author doesn't attempt to solve the crime, but analyzes how the historical, social and political context of this case determined the outcome.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted September 13, 2011

    Read this book! Great author.

    Great, great book: Some thing just don't add up...
    If she killed the girl with her boyfriends kitchen knife why bring it back home yet ditch the keys, cell phones, money, etc. And, how did she get it home without getting DNA and blood anywhere on their clothes, purse, etc? Yet, there was blood on the tip of the knife only? Truly impossible.
    If she did clean the crime scene, how did she remove every single spec of her and her boyfriends dna and or bodily fluids, fingerprints, etc. yet leave all of Guede's DNA, fingerprints, footprints, etc. along with a minute bit of dna on the bra? Astounding.
    How did either of them not get any of Merediths DNA on them or get their DNA under her fingernails, isn't that the first thing CSI checks?
    Why didn't Guede flush the toilet if he was there to have a satanic sex orgy with Amanda and her boyfriend? If they had the frame of mind to wipe down the apartment, and remove all DNA, surely they would have checked the toilet...
    Why go through the trouble, as the prosecutor says, to remove all DNA of themselves with bleach yet leave drops of blood in the sink?
    Why didn't Amanda or her boyfriend have any unusual scratches or bruises anywhere on them?
    why would Amanda and her boyfriend go the the police station at all? Why not head straight to the embassy or immediately get a lawyer? His dad was rich, he could have gotten him a great lawyer if he was guilty.
    Why doesn't the 'murder weapon' match the bloody knife print on the bed?
    Why didn't the prosecutor want the defense to review the DNA evidence?
    Facts and opinions aside, this book was very well written and captivating, couln't put it down.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted September 8, 2011

    Not enough case details

    The author goes into a very indepth history of the town, the house, and the characters. Details of the crime and case are lacking. Too many irrelevant facts and quotes

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  • Posted September 12, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    Very good!

    Very good!

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted August 14, 2011

    I do not like its horrible.

    Oh and since you cant rate zero stars that one star means zero stars. It was soooooooooo horrible.

    0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

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    Posted April 7, 2012

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    Posted September 8, 2011

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    Posted November 22, 2011

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    Posted November 17, 2011

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    Posted September 26, 2011

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