Jens Soering Libri

To a Correctional Facility in Virginia, he is known as "Prisoner 179212," but to a legion of journalists and legal reform activists he is Jens Soering, a German citizen who has endured for the past twenty-five years the harshest and most unforgiving punishment this country can offer--the American prison system. Told with dry humor and trenchant wit, One Day in the Life of 179212 provides an hour-by-hour survey of everyday life in a medium-security facility with all of its attendant hardships, contradictions, and even revelations. Soering poignantly illustrates the importance of meditation and faith when confronted with extreme adversity, as well as the indisputable need for prison reform. Although this inspiring, eloquent memoir recounts just a day in the life of one man, it provides a powerful voice for the over two million men and women lost in the maze of America's prison-industrial complex.

In 1985, socialites Derek and Nancy Haysom were found brutally stabbed to death in their home in Boonsboro, Virginia. When suspicion turned to the Haysoms' beautiful but troubled daughter, Elizabeth, and her German boyfriend, Jens Soering, their case became one of the most notorious in the Commonwealth's history. After fleeing with Elizabeth to Europe, Jens ultimately confessed to the crime, under the illusion that as the son of a German consular official he'd be granted diplomatic immunity. He believed he was nobly sacrificing his life for love--just as Sydney Carton does for Lucie Manette in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Now published for the first time in English, Jens tells his side of the story: of how a naïve and reckless scholar fell into a world of deception, drugs, and ultimately murder. His compelling, revelatory account is accompanied by the painstaking analysis of Bill Sizemore, a journalist who's followed the Soering case for over a decade. In parallel with the 2016 documentary film about the murders, called The Promise, A Far, Far Better Thing not only points to a miscarriage of justice, but also showcases the tragedy of misplaced love and a catastrophically foolish declaration.