102 Minutes: The Unforgettable Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, Edition 2

Jim Dwyer · Kevin Flynn

Aug 2011 · Sold by Macmillan

About this ebook

"102 Minutes does for the September 11 catastrophe what Walter Lord did for the Titanic in his masterpiece, A Night to Remember . . . Searing, poignant, and utterly compelling."—Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Army at Dawn

Hailed upon publication as an instant classic, the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller and National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction is now available in a revised edition to honor the anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

At 8:46 a.m. that morning, fourteen thouosand people were inside the World Trade Center just starting their workdays, but over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages. Of the millions of words written about this wrenching day, most were told from the outside looking in. New York Times reporters Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn draw on hundreds of interviews with rescuers and survivors, thousands of pages of oral histories, and countless phone, e-mail, and emergency radio transcripts to tell the story of September 11 from the inside looking out.

Dwyer and Flynn have woven an epic and unforgettable account of the struggle, determination, and grace of the ordinary men and women who made 102 minutes count as never before.

102 Minutes is a 2005 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.

Ratings and reviews

From the very first sentence until the last, I was absorbed and the way in which it is written really places you there - it made me look at my own life differently with the way that it described everyone's usual workday routines (and I couldn't help but compare them to how similar they are to my own usual workday routine) and some of the most heartbreaking accounts of people ( like Neil Levin who had never been inside the top floor Windows restaurant until that morning, where he was due to have a breakfast meeting, Anne Prosser who was getting married in just 4 weeks time, etc etc) the people and events are portrayed just as they were that day and at times, I was crying as I read the pages. It describes the history of the Twin Towers, from the design and why they looked the way the did and the previous terrorist attacks and there are detailed plans which really bring home the horror as you read about individual, normal people who had families that loved them, things they were looking forward to and total heroism, one such person being Frank De Martini who was the Port Authority construction manager who (along with a brave, selfless group) decided to stay in the North tower and climb to upper floors, prising open doors and enabling escape for people who previously had no chance - De Martini died during the collapse, yet if he'd gone down the stairwells as soon as he got out of his office, his chances of survival would have been high. This book demonstrates the heroes within the Towers - the normal people who were just like you and me - the heroes that the majority of media reports forgot to mention. At the beginning of the book there's a very touching list of all of those who were confirmed dead from The North Tower's 89th floor, Beast Financial Systems, Castor Fitzgerald, Carr Futures, Clearstream Banking, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Julian Studley, Marsh & McLennan, May Davis Group, Network Plus, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (88th floor), Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (elsewhere in North Tower), Silverstein Properties, Windows on the World guests, Windows on the World staff, WPIX-TV, Building staff and others within the North Tower. People confirmed dead from the South Tower's Aon Insurance, Euro Brokers, Fiduciary Trust, Garban ICAP, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Kemper Insurance, Mizuho Capital Markets/Fuji Bank, Morgan Stanley, New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Oppenheimer Management Corp, Sandler O'Neill & Partners, Building staff, Port Authority and others. People confirmed dead from Marriott Hotel, the Fire Department of New York, New York Police Department, Port Authority Police Department, New York State Court Officers, New York City Emergency Medical Services, New York City Office of Emergency Management, United States Marine Corps and finally Chuck Sereika. This is one book that I would definitely recommend to anyone who has the remotest hint of interest in 9/11.

This really is the book to turn to if you wish to know about one of the greatest tragedies in our nation's history. I began this book with little knowledge of the event, and was left stunned by much that I read. This is a great in depth book about what went on at the WTC on 9/11 and in the years preceding.

Amazing book. So exciting I could not put it down!

About the author

Jim Dwyer (1957-2020) was the author of several works of nonfiction, including More Awesome Than Money: Four Boys and Their Heroic Quest to Save Your Privacy from Facebook, 102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers, and Subway Lives: 24 Hours in the Life of the New York Subways. A Pulitzer Prize winner and native New Yorker, he was a columnist for The New York Times, The Daily News and Newsday.

Kevin Flynn, a special projects editor at The New York Times, was the newspaper's police bureau chief on September 11, having previously worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, Newsday, and The Advocate (Stamford). He lives in Connecticut.