Good news for fans of Serial, the blockbuster podcast series about a Baltimore murder mystery: There will soon be a book about its central character, Adnan Syed. The book is being written by Rabia Chaudry, the lawyer who initially brought Syed’s case to This American Life reporter Sarah Koenig. Chaudry, a Syed family friend who was interviewed on Serial as a believer in Syed’s innocence, started her own podcast about the case after Serial ended last year.
Syed was convicted of the 1999 murder of his former girlfriend Hae Min Lee and has been in prison ever since. Serial stirred up a huge amount of interest in his case, which took a critical turn earlier this month when a Baltimore judge granted a motion to reopen post-conviction proceedings and allow new evidence to be introduced at a future hearing.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the book will be published by St. Martin’s Press in September 2016, and will be titled Adnan’s Story: Murder, Justice, and the Case That Captivated a Nation. The book deal was brokered by literary agent Lauren Abramo of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.
Abramo told Slate in an email that Adnan’s Story will “reexamine the investigation that led to Adnan Syed’s arrest, share his life in prison, cover new evidence and possibilities that have since come to light, and review the recent court successes.”
According to Abramo, who contacted Chaudry about a possible book after getting hooked on Serial and reading Chaudry’s blog about the case, Syed will be “providing his own perspective on the events via letters he’s written to Rabia from prison.”
A release cited by EW quotes Syed as saying:
The first letter I received after being arrested in 1999 was from Rabia. Since that time until now, she has believed in my innocence and been committed to my exoneration. There have been appeal hearings in which she is the only other person other than my mother who showed up. Rabia, Saad, and their family are one of the only families that never forgot me. Over the years they never stopped visiting me, taking my calls, sending me letters and books, and praying for me. As someone connected to me, my family, my community, my lawyers, and my investigation, there is no one better to help tell my story, and no one that I trust more to tell it, than Rabia.
You can see the cover of the book, which features a close-up photo of Syed, over at EW.
