At 8.46 am on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were
inside the Twin Towers in New York - reading emails,
making calls, eating croissants...over the next 102
minutes each would become part of the most infamous and
deadly terrorist attack in history, one truly witnessed
only by the people who lived through it - until now. Of
the millions of words written about that unforgettable
day when Al Qaeda attacked the western world, most have
been from outsiders. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer
and Kevin Flynn have taken the more revealing approach -
using real-life testimonies to report solely from the
perspective of those inside the towers. 102 Minutes is
the epic account of ordinary men and women whose lives
were changed forever in this kamikaze act of terrorism.
This unique book about unique people, includes
incredible stories of bravery, courage and overcoming
unbelievable odds.Immortalised in this non-fiction
masterpiece are the construction manager and his
colleagues who pried open the doors and saved dozens of
people in the north tower; the police officer who was a
few blocks away, filing his retirement papers, but
grabbed his badge and sprinted to the buildings; the
window washer stuck in a lift fifty floors up who used a
squeegee to escape; and the secretaries who led an
elderly man down eighty-nine flights of stairs. Chance
encounters, moments of grace, a shout across an office
shaped these minutes, marking the border between fear
and solace, staking the boundary between life and death.
Crossing a bridge of voices to go inside the infernos,
seeing cataclysm and herosim one person at a time, Dwyer
and Flynn tell the affecting, authoritative saga of the
men and women - the 12,000 who escaped and the 2,749 who
perished at Ground Zero on September 11th 2001 - as they
made 102 minutes count as never before. |
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