The memoir of 15-year-old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai will be published this fall, publisher Weidenfeld & Nicolson announced Wednesday. The deal is reportedly worth about $3 million.
Titled "I Am Malala," the book will tell the story of the young advocate for women's education who was shot in the face at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen on Oct. 9 in Pakistan’s Swat Valley.
The bullet passed through her head, neck and stuck in her shoulder but miraculously spared her life.
Malala was treated in England following the attack, and last month she underwent skull reconstruction surgery.
"I hope the book will reach people around the world, so they realize how difficult it is for some children to get access to education," Malala said in a news release. "I want to tell my story, but it will also be the story of 61 million children who can't get education. I want it to be part of the campaign to give every boy and girl the right to go to school. It is their basic right."
Having survived the cowardly attack, Malala became a symbol for peaceful protest. She was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon designated Nov. 10 as Malala Day in her honor. Malala now attends school in Birmingham.
Weidenfeld & Nicholson will publish the book in the United Kingdown and Little, Brown in the rest of the world.
The British newspaper The Guardian reported that the deal is worth 2 million British pounds or about $3 million, but the publisher would not confirm.
In a fragment from the book released Wednesday, Malala writes:
I come from a country that was created at midnight. When I almost died it was just after midday. It was Tuesday, October 9, 2012, not the best of days as it was the middle of school exams, though as a bookish girl I don't mind them as much as my friends do. We'd finished for the day and I was squashed between my friends and teachers on the benches of the open-back truck we use as a school bus. There were no windows, just thick plastic sheeting that flapped at the sides and was too yellowed and dusty to see out of, and a postage stamp of open sky at the back through which I caught a glimpse of a kite wheeling up and down. It was pink, my favorite color.
"This book will be a document to bravery, courage and vision," Arzu Tahsin, deputy publishing director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, said in a statement. "Malala is so young to have experienced so much and I have no doubt that her story will be an inspiration to readers from all generations who believe in the right to education and the freedom to pursue it."
