Remembering 9/11 in Fiction & Nonfiction

In Amy Waldman’s The Submission, a Muslim architect is chosen to design a memorial commemorating a tragic terrorist attack. The decision divides not only the country, but families, friends and neighbors. Should a Muslim be allowed to design the memorial to deaths that were caused by other Muslims? Told from the viewpoint of several different characters with a stake in the process – a juror, the wife of a victim, the architect himself – the novel boldly explores the different ways our society changed after 9/11 and encourages vigorous discussion.



Here are other fiction titles that examine the aftermath of 9/11:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweler, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet.

Falling Man by Don Delillo - Falling Man is a magnificent, essential novel about the event that defines turn-of-the-century America. It begins in the smoke and ash of the burning towers and tracks the aftermath of this global tremor in the intimate lives of a few people.

The Good Life by Jay McInerney - Clinging to a semi-precarious existence in TriBeCa, Corrine and Russell Calloway have survived a separation and are thoroughly wonder-struck by young twins whose provenance is nothing less than miraculous. But on a September morning, brightness falls horribly from the sky, and they suddenly find themselves working side by side at the devastated site, feeling lost anywhere else, yet battered still by memory and regret, by fresh disappointment and unimaginable shock. What happens, or should happen, when life stops us in our tracks, or our own choices do?

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid - Changez is living an immigrant’s dream of America. But in the wake of September 11, Changez finds his position in his adopted city suddenly overturned, and his budding relationship with his girlfriend eclipsed by the reawakened ghosts of her past. And Changez’s own identity is in seismic shift as well, unearthing allegiances more fundamental than money, power, and maybe even love.

NONFICTION

Debunking 9/11 Myths by Popular Mechanics Magazine - Conspiracy theories about September 11, 2001 continue to spread. Now, in a meticulous, scientific and groundbreaking new book, Popular Mechanics puts these rumors to rest.

Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam by Giles Kepel - The late twentieth century has witnessed the emergence of an unexpected and extraordinary phenomenon: Islamist political movements. Jihad is the first extensive, in-depth attempt to follow the history and geography of this disturbing political-religious phenomenon.

The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright - A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. 102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn - At 8:46 am on September 11, 2001, 14,000 people were inside the twin towers-reading e-mails, making trades, eating croissants at Windows on the World. Over the next 102 minutes, each would become part of a drama for the ages, one witnessed only by the people who lived it-until now.