Names of the Dead: An Elegy for the Victims of September 11

We’ve seen the pictures and heard their names. But the staggering number of September 11, 2001 terror attack victims overwhelms the individual stories of the men and women who left home that morning never to return. And with this deeply moving tribute, Diane Schoemperlen both bestows individuality to each and connects us all. As she says in her preface, "There is an immediate recognition in the power of naming."

A tapestry of every name and a narrative of events crafted with a novelist’s keen observational eye, the story of this day of loss becomes a celebration of life. Accompanying the names of the victims is an imaginative framework of fragments based on facts—relationships, hobbies, hopes for the future, the textures and basic endeavors of human life. Written in spellbinding prose, Names of the Dead is at once a work of literary art and a haunting elegy that captures the magnitude of an unforgettable event.