Out of the Blue : The Story of September 11, 2001, from Jihad to Ground Zero

Following the lives of heroes, victims, and terrorists of September 11, 2001, Richard Bernstein, one of The New York Times's most skillful journalists, weaves the complex tale of a multitude of lives colliding in conflagration on that fateful morning. Bernstein takes us inside the al-Qaeda organization and introduces us to police officers and firefighters as well as some of the Trade Center workers who were lost on that day. And we follow the lives of the rest of America in the hours and days after the attack.

This riveting, incisive, and authoritative account is destined to stand as the essential chronicle of this singular moment in our history.

“[A] superbly written overall chronicle of the events leading up to September 11, [it] draws on the reporting of the entire New York Times staff to bring alive the background with a subtlety and mastery that could almost make September 11 seem unsurprising.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“An invaluable road map of the events of September 11 . . . A tightly written, lucid account . . . of the tragedy and a fascinating survey of the players and forces that produced it.” —The New York Times

“Provides striking glimpses into the unimaginable human details of the tragedy.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“Bernstein's narrative is exceptional. His ability to sift through the facts and near-facts of recent terrorism history is unerring. He is a winningly modest writer, but he is not afraid of the poetic.” —The Washington Post Book World