Windows on the World by Frederic Beigbeder

Windows on the World

Frederic Beigbeder

You must experience this book - it will knock you for six. The knife sharp prose took me right onto the top floor of the World Trade Centre on 11th September 2001. I knew the end but still had to read on.

Extract
Beyond the windows my eyes are drawn to every passing plane. For me to be able to describe what took place on the far side of the Atlantic, a plane would have to crash into the black tower beneath my feet. I'd feel the building rock; it must be a strange sensation. Something as solid as a skyscraper rocking like a drunken boat. So much glass and steel transformed in an instant into a wisp of straw. Wilted stone...If a Boeing were to crash below my feet, I would finally know what it is that has tortured me for a year now: the black smoke seeping from the floor, the heat melting the walls, the exploded windows, the asphyxiation, the panic, the suicides, the headlong stampede to stairwells already in flames, the tears and the screams, the desperate phone calls. This does not mean that I do not breathe a sigh of relief as I watch each plane fly off into the white sky. But it happened. This thing happened, and it is impossible to relate.
Parallels
  • Rumours of a Hurricane by Tim Lott
  • The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  • The Towering Inferno - the film
Borrow this book
Violence