Her family had not heard from her since 2000, when she abruptly left Chicago to write the book. Khouri continued to insist she'd told the truth, even when confronted with public records which proved beyond all doubt she had spent most of her life in the United States.[1] Knox also unearthed evidence that suggested Khouri had left Chicago when legal problems arose with several real-estate transactions.[3] As a result, Random House pulled the book from the shelves in Australia and the UK indefinitely. Knox and fellow Australian journalist Caroline Overington won the 2004 Walkley Award for investigative journalism for the exposé.