Susan Klebold, whose son Dylan was one of the two boys who killed 12 students and wounded 24 others at his high school in Columbine, Colo., in 1999, has sold a memoir to Crown Publishers. The book, Crown said in an announcement, will break Klebold's 15-year silence about the disaster and aim to answer the question, "What, if anything, should she have done differently?"
Klebold, whose profits from the book will be donated to research and charities focused on mental health problems, was compelled to write the book, Crown said, because of the string of school shootings that have recently dominated the news, including those in Newtown, Conn., and at Reynolds High in Troutdale, Ore. Crown said the choice to write the book was not an easy one for Klebold, but she hopes the title will enable other parents to spot the signs that their children might become violent, signs she missed.
The book, which is currently untitled, will, Crown added, "invite readers into [Klebold's] very private struggle of the last fifteen years as she and her family have tried to understand the events of that terrible day and the role they ultimately played in it."
Roger Scholl, v-p and executive editor, took world rights in the deal from Laurie Bernstein at Side by Side Literary Productions. In the U.K., W.H. Allen has acquired the title. A publication date has not yet been set.
