Former US prisoner of war Jessica Lynch has signed a deal with publisher Alfred A Knopf reportedly worth $1.58 million.
The publisher said the book, I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story, will be written by former New York Times reporter Rick Bragg and is due for release in November.
The 20-year-old supply clerk was captured by Iraqi forces on March 23 near the city of Nassiriya.
Eleven other US soldiers were killed and nine wounded in the incident.
She became a symbol of American patriotism during the war, which generated controversy as accounts of her rescue in Iraq varied.
An early media report quoted unnamed US officials saying she engaged Iraqi soldiers in a fire fight despite being wounded before being captured.
The Army later said she was injured when her Humvee crashed into another vehicle in the convoy after being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.
The Army inquiry said a tired company commander misread his map and took a wrong turn.
US commandos rescued Lynch from an Iraqi hospital on April 1 under the glare of international media coverage.
Ms Lynch was granted an honourable military discharge last week due to her injuries.
“I have been heartened by the hope and faith of the American people and by the tireless effort of the US Armed Forces,” Ms Lynch said in a statement issued by the publisher.
The full details of her story have yet to be told since Lynch said she suffered a loss of memory after her capture.
She was awarded the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and the Prisoner of War medal.
Pulitzer-Prize winner Bragg resigned from The New York Times earlier this year after allegations that he relied too heavily on the work of a freelancer for a by-lined article.
Financial details were not released by press reports quoting un-named Knopf sources puts the deal at about $1.58 million.
-Reuters
We all saw it coming months ahead of time; the newest thing to roll off the production line over in the main building of Patriotism Industries. A disgraced plagiarist co-authoring the sensationalised, populist story of a propagandistic pawn. You just can’t make this stuff up. I see that the “memory loss” is still being bandied about in the background like all good obfuscation contingency plans. Was that as a result of the crash caused by navigational error, the wounds suffered from a fictitious gunfight with pretend enemy soldiers, or the imaginary dangerous liberation under make-believe fire from legions of fabricated evil towel-heads? No doubt the book, propelled by advertisements and interviews on Fox News, will be a massive hit, proudly displayed on the bookshelves of all good flag-waving American households sandwiched in between Coulter’s bullshit and back-issues of TV Guide, and the telemovie with the dad from 7th Heaven will rate through the roof. I think Mark “Chopper” Read, Australian ex-criminal and best-selling author, said it best: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.”
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