Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11

A humanising account of one of the most important days in modern history

The prospect of reading a book where the final moments of 2,977 terrorist attack victims are recounted in minute-by-minute detail is tough, but was ultimately my most rewarding non-fiction read of 2019.

Nothing makes me feel older than speaking to someone and they were too young to remember watching the towers fall on TV. I think that's why I found this book so interesting, it's such a significant day in history that occurred in my lifetime. Reading this gave me details of the fallout I was too young to understand at the time.

As the title suggests, the book is split into two parts: ‘Fall' and ‘Rise' (for anyone daunted by the size of the book, at least the final 100 pages are appendices and an index of the victims). The pacing of ‘Fall' often reads like a thriller, where you unfortunately already know the tragic outcome. By going into the details of the lives of some of the passengers, airline staff and people working in the twin towers and Pentagon, it accentuated the scale of the tragedy. The flight attendant who almost missed her morning bus to the airport, the passengers that had extended their weekends away and rescheduled to travel on September 11th instead... so many twists of fate that ended disastrously.

‘Rise' details the rebuilding of the towers and what happened to the survivors after the attack. The shocking lack of aftercare for the emergency service workers that were involved, and the trauma and guilt experienced by those in the towers that survived. I visited New York in November 2019 and seeing the names of some of the people I had read about engraved into the memorial and their belongings on display in the museum added extra gravity to an already reflective and emotional experience.

‘Fall and Rise' is not a light read. I actually read another book at the same time when I needed a break from the bleak details the attack. I am so glad I read it though, it gave me a whole new appreciation of the resilience of the people of New York and made my visit to the museum even more impactful. The whole story was handled very sensitively, avoiding gratuitous descriptions of the terror that was inflicted but not shying away from the realities of September 11th. An essential read and one of the most engaging non-fiction books I have ever read.