Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2019
624 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
Years in the making, this spellbinding, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting narrative is an unforgettable portrait of 9/11.
This is a 9/11 book like no other. Masterfully weaving together multiple strands of the events in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Fall and Rise is a mesmerizing, minute-by-minute account of that terrible day.
In the days and months after 9/11, Mitchell Zuckoff, then a reporter for the Boston Globe, wrote about the attacks, the victims, and their families. After further years of meticulous reporting, Zuckoff has filled Fall and Rise with voices of the lost and the saved. The result is an utterly gripping book, filled with intimate stories of people most affected by the events of that sunny Tuesday in September: an out-of-work actor stuck in an elevator in the North Tower of the World Trade Center; the heroes aboard Flight 93 deciding to take action; a veteran trapped in the inferno in the Pentagon; the fire chief among the first on the scene in sleepy Shanksville; a team of firefighters racing to save an injured woman and themselves; and the men, women, and children flying across country to see loved ones or for work who suddenly faced terrorists bent on murder.
Fall and Rise will open new avenues of understanding for everyone who thinks they know the story of 9/11, bringing to life—and in some cases, bringing back to life—the extraordinary ordinary people who experienced the worst day in modern American history.
Destined to be a classic, Fall and Rise will move, shock, inspire, and fill hearts with love and admiration for the human spirit as it triumphs in the face of horrifying events.
"Starred Review. The horror and heroism of 9/11 are brought to life in this panoramic history. ... The result is a superb, harrowing retelling of this most dramatic of stories." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Zuckoff did not set out to write a feel-good book, and the subject matter is unquestionably depressing at times. Nonetheless, as contemporary history, Fall and Rise is a clear and moving success." - Kirkus Reviews
"Every page shivers in stark remembrance of those dark days that forever scarred the American psyche and left a wound a mile deep in the heart of our nation. A masterpiece of historical scholarship." - Douglas Brinkley, the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, and author of American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
"Both a deconstruction and a reconstruction, Fall and Rise is a definitive - perhaps the definitive - account of a day that will always live in infamy. In this forensic but also literary tour de force, Mitchell Zuckoff has not only created a moving and consequential work; he's performed a national service." - Hampton Sides, bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice and On Desperate Ground
"With his rigorous research and moral clarity, Mitchell Zuckoff has provided us with an invaluable service. He has deepened our understanding of what happened on 9/11 and recorded the voices of the victims and the survivors. What's more, he has ensured that we never forget." - David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon
"We can see ourselves reflected in the mirror of those lives that Zuckoff has restored through rigorous research,sensitive listening, and artful storytelling. Infused with empathy, Fall and Rise dignifies not only the individuals profiled in his book but all who were violated by the terrorist attacks of 9/11." - Jan Ramirez, chief curator and executive vice president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum
"Fall and Rise is the 9/11 book we've been waiting for. A terrific storyteller and gifted researcher, Mitchell Zuckoff has rendered that world-changing day on a scale both intimate and monumental. This is narrative history at its very best." - Cokie Roberts, New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning journalist
"A triumph of great reporting and rigorous research, Fall and Rise re-creates the tragic events of September 11, 2001, with harrowing precision and commendable empathy." - Daniel James Brown, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat
"Better and more comprehensive than any prior account, Fall and Rise shows us the human toll of the 9/11 terror attacks. It is a tale told in aborted destinies, in endless ripples of heartache, and it documents the inestimable value of individual lives. Those of us who lived through those days will find the book cathartic; those rising generations who were too young to remember 9/11, or who weren't yet born, will find it revelatory." - John Farmer, senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission and author of The Ground Truth
This information about Fall and Rise was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Mitchell Zuckoff is a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is the author of Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II. His previous books are: Robert Altman: The Oral Biography, one of Amazon.com's "Best Books of 2009"; Ponzi's Scheme: The True Story of a Financial Legend, a New York Times Editors' Choice book; and Choosing Naia: A Family's Journey, which received the Christopher Award and was named a Massachusetts Honor Book. He is co-author of Judgment Ridge: The True Story Behind the Dartmouth Murders, which was a finalist for the Edgar Award.
Zuckoff's magazine work has appeared in The New Yorker, Fortune, and other national and regional publications. He is a former special projects reporter for The ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Mitchell Zuckoff's Website
Name Pronunciation
Mitchell Zuckoff: ZOO-koff
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