Synopses & Reviews
From one of the greatest legal injustices of our time sprang one of the most unlikelyand unforgettablelove stories. Damien Echols was just eighteen years old when he was condemned to death for a crime he didnt commit. His casethat of the infamous West Memphis Three”gained notoriety after a documentary,
Paradise Lost, exposed the biased nature of the trial and Echols as the precocious, charmingand tragicfigure at its center. Lorri Davis was a landscape architect living in New York City when she surreptitiously wandered into a showing of the film, and she left forever changed. She, too, was from the South, accustomed to being the outsider in a small town. She saw much of herself in Echols, understood how he could easily have been swept up in a witch hunt, and she couldnt get him out of her head. So she wrote him a letterand when it arrived in Echolss penitentiary cell in April 1996, hers were some of the first kind words of support he heard.
Over the course of a remarkable sixteen-year correspondence, Echols and Davis grew to know each other, fall in love, and marryall without ever being able to touch each other freely or be alone together. In Yours for Eternity, their extraordinary letters provide a singular portrait of their marriage, from the first, heady days of discovery to the final, painful months before Echolss release. Through postscripts and footnotes, Echols and Davis describe how they overcame the enormous challenges and heartbreaks throughout the yearspersonal setbacks, legal complications, and much more. Yours for Eternity reveals a relationship unfolding in the most exceptional of circumstances. Powerful and incredibly intimate, it is a modern-day love story for the ages.
Review
A New York Times Bestseller A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
A USA Today Bestseller
A Wall Street Journal Bestseller
A Kirkus Reviews and#8220;Best of 2012and#8221; nonfiction selection and#160; and#8220;Damien Echols spent eighteen years on death row for murders he did not commit. Somehow, in the depths of his unspeakable nightmare, he found the courage and strength not only to survive, but to grow, to create, to forgive, and to understand.and#160;Life After Death is a brilliant, haunting, painful, and uplifting narrative of a hopeless childhood, a wrongful conviction, a brutal incarceration, and the beginning of a new life.and#8221; and#8212;John Grisham and#160; and#8220;Wrongfully imprisoned by willfully ignorant cops, prosecutors and judge, Damien Echols draws on all his wits and his unique view of humanity to survive eighteen years on death row. My admiration for him, and the strength of his spirit, increases with every page.and#8221; and#160;and#8212;Sir Peter Jackson, Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter and#160; and#8220;I am in awe of Damien's ability to write so beautifully, with such ease, humor and honestyand#8212;this is inspired storytelling, a wonderful book!and#8221; and#160;and#8212;Fran Walsh, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, composer and producer and#160; and#8220;The life of Damien Echols is a journey similar to that of the metal that becomes a samuraiand#8217;s sword. Heated and pounded until it becomes hardened, it can hold its edge for centuries. It is incredible that Damien endured and survived one of the most tragic miscarriages of American justice, and emerged such a centered, articulate and extraordinary man and writer. Life After Death proves that he paid dearly for his wisdom.and#8221; and#8212;Henry Rollins and#160; and#8220;Exceptional memoir by the most famous of the West Memphis Three. [B]are facts alone would make for an interesting story. However, Echols is at heart a poet and mystic, and he has written not just a quickie one-off book to capitalize on a lurid news story, but rather a work of art that occasionally bears a resemblance to the work of Jean Genet. A voracious reader all his life, Echols vividly tells his story, from his impoverished childhood in a series of shacks and mobile homes to his emergence after half a lifetime behind bars as a psychically scarred man rediscovering freedom in New York City. The author also effectively displays his intelligence and sensitivity, qualities the Arkansas criminal justice system had no interest in recognizing during Echolsand#8217; ordeal. Essential reading.and#8221; and#8212;Kirkus Reviews (starred) and#160; and#8220;This is a stunning piece of work. Such hope while faced with injustice. Damien teaches us how to live.and#8221; and#8212;Eddie Vedder and#160; and#8220;[Echolsand#8217;] case garnered worldwide attention, but [his] memoir is about as far away from a publicity-seeking I-was-wronged story as possible. The author opts for a meatier, and certainly more haunting, account of his life behind bars, coupled with flashbacks to his childhood....Echols is a talented writer, and when the book dips into his own spiritual and philosophical beliefs...it achieves the kind of emotional resonance that many similar books lack....A tragic and often disturbing story." and#8212;Booklist and#160; "Damien Echols suffered a shocking miscarriage of justice. A nightmare few could endure.and#160;An innocent man on death row for more than eighteen years, abused by the very system we all fund.and#160;His story will appall, fascinate, and render you feeble with tears and laughter.and#160;A brilliant memoir to battle with literary giants of the calibre of Jean Genet, Gregory David Roberts, and Dostoevsky." and#8212;Johnny Depp and#160; and#8220;[T]his is an eloquent, even bitterly lyrical, portrayal of how an innocent man can slip through the cracks of the legal system and struggle to survive. Compelling and deeply moving, in the tradition of Helen Prejeanand#8217;s Dead Man Walking and Norman Mailerand#8217;s The Executionerand#8217;s Song, this memoir will appeal to a wide audience.and#8221; and#8212;Library Journal (starred) and#160; and#8220;In this searing, finely wrought memoir, Echols recalls his poverty-stricken childhood, the trial of the West Memphis 3, and the harsh realities of life on death row and#8230; The most affecting sections are Echolsand#8217;s philosophical musings on all he has lost, his thoughts often influenced by Zen Buddhism. In one journal entry that survived the guardsand#8217; purge, Echols contemplates what he misses the most while in prison. The answer is a heart-wrenching and simple commentary on American prison life: and#8216;In the end itand#8217;s not the fruit I miss most... I miss being treated like a human being.and#8217;and#8221; and#8212;Publisherand#8217;s Weekly (starred) and#160; and#8220;[A] tale of romance, resilience, and the power of the written word.and#8221;
and#8212;Stephanie Palumbo, O, The Oprah Magazine
and#160; and#8220;Echols is a writer whose talent is commensurate with the task of telling this story....The man who has emerged from death row at last is not quite a hero, but heand#8217;s something far more interesting: an artistand#8212;and, most definitely, well worth meeting.and#8221; and#8212;Laura Miller, Salon.com
and#160; and#8220;Grippingand#8230;Echols has already lived a remarkable life, one forged in tragedy and all manner of iniquity. That he is able to write so movingly about the many trials he endured speaks volumes about his intellect and character.and#8221; and#8212;Jesse Singal, The Boston Globe
Synopsis
In 1993, teenagers Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, Jr.andmdash;who have come to be known as the West Memphis Threeandmdash;were arrested for the murders of three eight-year-old boys in Arkansas. The ensuing trial was marked by tampered evidence, false testimony, and public hysteria. Baldwin and Misskelley were sentenced to life in prison; while eighteen-year-old Echols, deemed the andldquo;ringleader,andrdquo; was sentenced to death. Over the next two decades, the WM3 became known worldwide as a symbol of wrongful conviction and imprisonment, with thousands of supporters and many notable celebrities who called for a new trial. In a shocking turn of events, all three men were released in August 2011.
Now Echols shares his story in fullandmdash;from abuse by prison guards and wardens, to portraits of fellow inmates and deplorable living conditions, to the incredible reserves of patience, spirituality, and perseverance that kept him alive and sane while incarcerated for nearly two decades.
In these pages, Echols reveals himself a brilliant writer, infusing his narrative with tragedy and irony in equal measure: he describes the terrors he experienced every day and his outrage toward the American justice system, and offers a firsthand account of living on Death Row in heartbreaking, agonizing detail. Life After Death is destined to be a riveting, explosive classic of prison literature.
Synopsis
New York Times bestselling author Damien Echols and his wife Lorri Davis reveal their intimate and affecting letters, written while Echols was wrongfully imprisoned on death row. An explosive bestseller, Life After Death turned a national spotlight on Damien Echols, who was just eighteen when he was wrongly condemned to death. But one of the most remarkable parts of his story still remained untold. After seeing a documentary about the and#147;West Memphis Three,and#8221; Lorri Davisand#151;a New Yorkbased landscape architectand#151;wrote him a letter, beginning a thirteen-year correspondence that witnessed their marriage while Echols was still on death row and culminated in Echolsand#8217; release in 2011. Sharing their private letters, Yours for Eternity is a must-read for the legions who followed the case as well as anyone who appreciates an extraordinary love story.
About the Author
Born in 1974, Damien Echols grew up in Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. At the age of eighteen, he was wrongfully convicted of murder, along with Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., thereafter known as the West Memphis Three. Echols received a death sentence and spent almost eighteen years on death row until he, Baldwin, and Misskelley were released in 2011. The WM3 have been the subject of Paradise Lost, a three-part documentary series produced by HBO, and West of Memphis, a documentary produced by Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. Echols is the author of the New York Times best-selling memoir Life After Death,