Memoir coming from ‘American Sniper’ widow

Taya Kyle, the widow of “American Sniper” author and former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, will release a memoir this spring, ABC News reports. William Morrow will publish “American Wife: A Memoir of Love, War, Faith and Renewal,” cowritten with Jim DeFelice, on May 4.

According to a publisher’s description on the book’s Amazon page, the memoir will cover “in never-before-told detail ... the hours, days, and months after [Chris Kyle’s] shocking death when grief threatened to overwhelm her.” DeFelice, the memoir’s coauthor, also cowrote “American Sniper” with Chris Kyle and Scott McEwen.

Chris Kyle, an Iraq War veteran often called the deadliest sniper in the history of the American armed forces, was shot to death in 2013 at a gun range in Texas. Last month, a jury convicted Eddie Ray Routh of capital murder in the slaying of Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield. Routh, a former Marine, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“American Sniper” was a huge publishing hit, but generated some controversy after a lawsuit by former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who claimed Kyle defamed him. The memoir features a passage in which Kyle says he punched a man who he called “Scruff Face” in a bar fight, after the man made derogatory remarks about Navy SEALs and former President George W. Bush. Kyle later confirmed in interviews that he was writing about the ex-governor. Ventura sued Kyle’s estate and won $1.8 million in damages, and is now suing the book’s publisher, HarperCollins.

Clint Eastwood’s film adaptation of “American Sniper” lent Chris Kyle’s book even more publicity. The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (for Bradley Cooper, who played Kyle). It only won one award, for sound editing, but remained a huge hit -- it recently became the highest-grossing film of 2014, earning more than $500 million worldwide.