SEPTEMBER 11: An Oral History

"A Changed Commute, a Saved Life"; "A Police Officer Loses His Friends and His Passion"; "A Prayer to Die Quickly and Painlessly"; "A Mother's Run for Her Life": as the titles of the personal accounts in New York Times reporter Murphy's volume indicate, the stories are by turns frightening, sad, surprising, terrible and miraculous. Scenes from the lives of those who were closest to the disaster, they provide a crucial and moving record, one guaranteed to produce chills in all but the toughest of readers. The immediacy of these accounts can be stunning, as are the twists of luck and split-second decisions that led to survival. (Aug. 27)