The Only Plane in the Sky

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Incredibly evocative and compelling.” – The Washington Post

“The most moving and chilling oral history you will read.” – The Times

“Astonishing book about an astonishing, terrifying atrocity, relived in real time by those who were there. I read it in one sitting & was utterly gripped from start to finish.” – Piers Morgan

“The most vivid portrait of 9/11 I’ve ever read.”- Mike Morell, former deputy director of the CIA

• Updated 20th Anniversary edition with additional content **

The Only Plane in the Sky is nothing less than the first comprehensive oral history of 9/11, drawing on transcripts, declassified documents and interviews from nearly 500 people.

While there has been so much published about 9/11 over the last two decades, the most important book has been missing until now: a 360-degree account of the day told through the voices of the people who experienced it.

In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable chaos at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker beneath the White House, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice watch for incoming planes on radar. In the offices of the Pentagon, top officials feel the violent tremor as their headquarters come under attack.

Poignant and powerful, The Only Plane in the Sky captures the event that shocked the world from the people who lived it. Read the true stories of the father and son working on separate floors in the North Tower; the firefighter who rushes to the scene to search for his wife; the telephone operator who keeps her promise to share a passenger’s last words with his family; the chaplain who sacrifices his own life to perform last rites as the Twin Towers collapse; the teachers evacuating terrified children from schools mere blocks from the World Trade Center; the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try and rescue their colleagues. All in their own words.

The Only Plane in the Sky is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives, 20 years ago.

Author Biography

Bestselling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff has spent nearly two decades covering politics, technology, and national security, and is now recognized as one of America’s most prolific and wide-ranging journalists and historians. He is the former editor of POLITICO Magazine, a regular writer for publications from Rolling Stone to Esquire to the Washington Post, a contributor to WIRED and CNN, and a regular voice and analyst on NPR, PBS NewsHour and the History Channel. He is the author of a half-dozen award-winning books, including the international bestseller The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11.