Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland

On May 6, 2013, a young woman kicked out the front door of a house in a working-class Cleveland neighbourhood and screamed for help. She and her six-year-old daughter ran to a neighbour's house, dialed 911, and told the operator, 'Help me, I'm Amanda Berry. I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here. I'm free now.' So began one of the most remarkable criminal stories of recent times, for it was soon discovered that Berry had been kept prisoner for a decade along with two other young women, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. Ariel Castro, a local school bus driver with a history of domestic violence, had lured each of the girls to the house with the offer of a ride home, then took them to the basement and locked them in chaining them like animals to the walls. In the years that followed the three girls were repeatedly raped, locked away in darkness, threatened with violence and often fed one meal a day. They each dreamt of someday escaping, of being reunited with their families, and devised strategies to bring as much stability to the terrible conditions they endured. Berry eventually bore a child, Jocelyn, the girl she brought with her to freedom. This is Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus's account of their time in the Seymour Avenue house, based on their recollections and the diaries they kept during the period, and written with Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan. Their story is of almost unendurable torment, yet perhaps the most extraordinary aspect of it is how they did, in fact, endure-through courage, ingenuity, resourcefulness and their growing confidence in matching wits with their kidnapper. As well as the harrowing chronicle of the events within the house, the book will recount the ongoing efforts to find the missing girls, as local and federal officials kept a manhunt alive for years, driven in part by Gina's tireless parents, who became committed activists on behalf of their daughter and of missing children in general. The Cleveland kidnappings made headlines around the world when these women were freed, and this dramatic and finally inspiring account will be certain to find a large audience.