Women held captive in Ohio home for decade release a memoir

NEW YORK (AP) — When Amanda Berry's toddler daughter had night terrors and started screaming and running around the room, Berry couldn't always get to her — because she was chained and couldn't move that far.

Big, heavy chains were a regular part of Berry's life for years as she, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were held captive in a Cleveland home by Ariel Castro before finally escaping in 2013. So were repeated rapes and other abuse.

But the women survived, and now Berry and DeJesus have written a book about their experiences. "We are free, we love life," the women said in the note to readers at the beginning of "Hope: A Memoir of Survival in Cleveland," which they wrote with journalists Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan. "Hope" is scheduled to come out Monday. The Associated Press purchased an early copy in New York.

Berry kept journals and other writings during her captivity; the book shifts between her and DeJesus' perspectives and recounts what their families went through and what Castro's background and life were like. Knight, who legally changed her name to Lily Rose Lee, has written a separate book about her experience, which was published last year. Berry and DeJesus said they invited her to write with them and "wish her only the best."