Adnan's Story

The Search for Truth and Justice After Serial

By: Rabia Chaudry

Narrated by: Rabia Chaudry

Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

After more than twenty years in prison, Adnan Syed’s murder conviction was overturned, and he was finally set free. Rabia Chaudry’s New York Times bestseller and award-winner Adnan’s Story reveals how the case was mishandled and became the subject of Sarah Koenig’s Peabody Award-winning podcast Serial.

In early 2000, Adnan Syed was convicted and sentenced to life plus thirty years for the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee, a high school senior in Baltimore, Maryland. Syed has maintained his innocence, and Rabia Chaudry, a family friend, has always believed him. By 2013, after almost all appeals had been exhausted, Rabia contacted Sarah Koenig, a producer at This American Life, in hopes of finding a journalist who could shed light on Adnan’s story. In 2014, Koenig's investigation turned into Serial, a Peabody Award-winning podcast with more than 500 million international listeners.

But Serial did not tell the whole story. In this compelling narrative, Rabia Chaudry presents key evidence that she maintains dismantles the State’s case: a potential new suspect, forensics indicating Hae was killed and kept somewhere for almost half a day, and documentation withheld by the State that destroys the cell phone evidence—among many other points—and she shows how fans of Serial joined a crowd-sourced investigation into a case riddled with errors and strange twists. Featuring information about Adnan’s life in prison, and weaving in his personal reflections with never-before-seen letters, Rabia’s account is “a true story about real people. Adnan’s Story adds context and humanizes it in a way that could change how you think about the case and about Serial itself” (Los Angeles Times).

“Chaudry’s clear, vivid and highly readable account of the case will bring the story to life for readers unfamiliar with the podcast, and even the most devoted Serial fans will find fresh insight and a vast amount of new material. Chaudry’s legal training serves her well as she marshals her defense, but so too does the Pakistani heritage and Muslim faith she shares with Syed.” —Washington Post

©2016 Rabia Chaudry (P)2016 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"'Serial' barely scratched the surface of Adnan's case, and Chaudry's writing and narration show her skilled legal mind at work as she tries to piece together what happened." - AudioFile Magazine

Fascinating. Heartbreaking. Informative.

I am one of those people that was sucked in by Serial, listened to it multiple times and then listened to everything Adnan related. Even after following along with Serial, Undisclosed, the Truth & Justice Podcast and Twitter, there is still so much to experience in this book. You get a real understanding of how devastating this was for everyone. You will get a behind-the-scene perspective of the podcasts. I could not stop listening. Rabia narrates and that is the cherry on top of the sundae.

An Interesting Read But...

The author's premise is that Adnan Syed did not receive a fair trial and that he is not guilty of murdering his former girlfriend. The story is interesting and my absorption in it prompted me to read articles on the subject. He may not have received a fair trial, and his is a cautionary tale of our legal system, but that does not mean he is innocent.

My reservation about the book is the author's friendship with the subject. Her brother was a childhood friend of Adnan. Her passion and devotion is admirable and, as she is an attorney, she brings her legal knowledge to the story; however, at the core, she is unable to be objective.

She does mention some of the troubling issues with Adnan's case but chooses to gloss over and never explain them. Other issues she does not mention in her zeal to exonerate her friend. I learned of those from other sources.

I don't want to ruin the experience for other readers by detailing doubts with the case. Read, enjoy, and draw your own conclusions.

In the Minority...

I wanted to like this book. I REALLY wanted to like this book. I'd never listened to Serial, nor had I heard of this case. I've been fascinated by the justice system for years, and wanted to know how things can go so terribly wrong.
But I couldn't love this book... in fact, I could barely like it.
The first half, in particular, is a gripping narrative account describing Adnan, his family, his culture, his motivations... the prejudiced investigation where statements were squeezed to fit what was known and, if inconvenient, dropped altogether. This young man was betrayed by friends, my some in his community, by the police, by his own lawyer. You can't help but feel sorrow for him, outrage at a system that allows this to happen, and hope that the truth of this murder will come to light.
And yet...
I got about halfway through this book... and I couldn't seem to continue. Not because his story was any less compelling, but the way it was compiled and read made it hard to folow. The author describes what she did and her role in getting the word out there, but other times she describes her own personal circumstances that have little to do with Adnan except to provide a backdrop for his letters. Events move forward and backward in time (mostly in a linear fashion, but sometimes time jumps ahead, or a quote from a letter dates it years after the events it's supposed to describe). A prison is closed down (in 2009?) yet letters two years later describe Adnan being housed there. Many events are described multiple times in multiple ways, and then the denial of an important appeal takes up 2 sentences - so quickly you miss it. Rabia is a terrific narrator in many ways, but I find she interjects herself into this story in odd places, and narrates so quickly that "1999" often sounds like "1989".
I wanted to love this book, but it could have been shortened to provide a more powerful impact. The narration could have been slowed slightly (and I'm saying this as someone who enjoys brisk narration), and further editing could have made this better than it was.
As an exploration of a conviction based on prejudice and misinformation, this book probably accomplishes what it set out to. But I somehow expected more... or different, and am disappointed.

If you love Serial & Undisclosed you'll love this!

I loved every minute of the audiobook! I've been listening to Adnan's story ever since the first episode of Serial. Rabia's book gives so many extra details and insights that were often missed. It was so nice to hear about letters from Adnan and his life behind bars. I was brought to tears several times with Adnan's courage and grace while being in prison and his passion to stay positive for himself and his family. I've always believed Adnan is innocent and I hope one day he will be set free.

I think Rabia did a great job with the narration. I will definitely be listening to Adnan's Story again!

Rabia is my hero

I loved this book, I listened to it non-stop the day it came out. The book did a phenomenal job at humanizing Rabia and Adnan, as if we all personally knew them. I also found the background and story of Adnan to be fascinating and much deeper than covered in podcasts. Maybe I am more interested in the human part of the story than I had thought. Rabia, you are my hero. Outstanding job on this and every other project you take part in, congrats!

Justice for Hae Min Lee! Justice for Adnan Syed

After hearing the story from many different media outlets it is nice to hear Adnan's perspective Rabia has a nice soothing voice, one thing I would have added a translation of the terms if endearment, or the salutations. And THANK YOU for finally explaining why they kept talking about red gloves.

Skip the part about the dream

I have been fascinated by this story from the moment I started listening to Serial, and there is a huge body of facts never covered by Serial here. As true-crime goes this is one of the most engrossing cases going. That being said, a person who is fighting for the freedom of someone they believe has been wrongly convicted must be extremely careful of the evidence they put forth in service of that person's freedom. Rabia does Adnan no favors by delving into the story of a dream that a completely unrelated person had involving the murder of "a Korean girl." Even if this story can be taken as authentic, not merely a desperate try for attention, some of the aspects of the dream don't match, and regardless, this is not any sort of evidence that could be introduced in trial. Rabia tells the story of the dream in a section of the book wherein she is trying to cast suspicion on Hae's boyfriend Don. There are some legitimate reasons to suspect this man and I cannot imagine why Rabia would want to introduce such flim-flam into the case against Don.

Rabia's voice is very pleasant to listen to, but there are a number of places where she mis-speaks, without the text of the book I can't tell if these are errors in narration or editing mistakes.

Overall a good book...but skip past "the dream."

Believe it or not, you learn even more!

I really enjoyed this book as told from Rabia's POV. She is generous with information about herself and her evolution through the years of Adnan's arrest, trial and incarceration. We also hear from Adnan through letters he has written to various people while he has been in prison. He provides insight into many questions still unanswered about the decisions and actions he has taken. There is more information gleaned from this book and like the Undisclosed podcast, Rabia hints that there is still more to come pending the appeal of the PCR ruling and possible new trial. A great read for anyone who has been listening to Adnan's story since Serial started it all.

The Rest of Adnan's Story

What made the experience of listening to Adnan's Story the most enjoyable?

Even though I have listened to all of Serial, Undisclosed, and Serial Dynasty, I found this book to be compelling. It provides a more rounded, personal, behind the scenes look at Adnan's case.

What about Rabia Chaudry’s performance did you like?

She has a fabulous speaking voice that I was already accustomed to through Undisclosed.

Amazing!!!

I have followed Adnan's story from Serial, to Undisclosed, to Truth & Justice and many blogs, tweets and articles. Through this, I have come to respect Rabia Chaudry and a beautiful, strong, woman who is certainly blazing trails wherever she goes!! After listening to this book, I feel like I know the story more deeply and have a renewed passion to see justice for Hae!