Mise à jour du 5 juin 2017: droits cédés à Sonatine
L’agence littéraire Sterling Lord Literistic vient d’annoncer l’accord passé avec Flatiron Books après enchères pour la publication aux États-Unis du premier livre de Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich.
Encore étudiante en droit, Alexandria se rend en Louisiane pour faire du bénévolat dans une organisation offrant à des accusés sans moyens une représentation légale. Elle travaille alors sur la condamnation à mort de Ricky Langsley, reconnu coupable d’avoir assassiné un enfant de 6 ans. La condition mentale de ce meurtrier et son passé extrêmement difficile expliquent, sans le justifier, son délit. La mère de l’enfant demandera même à la cour de ne pas infliger la peine capitale à Ricky, qui aurait besoin de soins psychiatriques. Grâce aux actes du procès, aux témoignages et articles de journaux divers, l’auteure se propose de reconstruire cette histoire, du passé de Ricky jusqu’au débat suscité par sa condamnation.
Mais ANYONE OF US n’est un « true crime » conventionnel. Car parallèlement à l’histoire de Ricky, l’auteure raconte sa propre histoire, notamment son expérience d’enfant abusé. Et au fil des pages, la vie de Ricky et la sienne se rapprochent progressivement, jusqu’à même se croiser…
A groundbreaking book that shows how law is personal and composed of individual stories
ANY ONE OF US
by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Flatiron Books, TBA
When Alexandria started Harvard Law School, she had no idea how her life would be dramatically altered. After taking a summer internship at a small law firm in Louisiana and working on the murder and death penalty retrial of convicted child molester Ricky Langley, Alexandria begins to see his life and circumstances mirrored in her own. As she digs deeper into Ricky’s past, pouring over thousands of pages of court transcripts to tell his story, she finds herself thrust into the narrative as she begins identifying with the killer through their mutually abusive childhoods. In taking on Ricky, she is forced to face her own story, and rationalize the path that led her to a Harvard education, while defending the one that led Ricky Langley to a life of violent crime. But in investigating his case, she realizes that she is not alone in interpreting the crime through her own life. The judge, the jury foreman, even the victim’s mother and the defense attorney—all saw the crime through their own lens. All saw their lives in his. The murder trial that took place was not just about Ricky’s past, but about the pasts of everyone touched by the crime. In Alexandria’s hands, ANY ONE OF US becomes a book not only about how the story of one crime was constructed—but about how we understand our lives, our families, and each other, and how we all make stories.
In the tradition of IN COLD BLOOD, THE EXECUTIONER’S SONG and DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY, Alexandria merges her own personal narrative with that of Ricky Langley’s, interpreting her life through his and showing how either story can really happen to ANY ONE OF US.