Firehouse

A moving testament to the remarkable brotherhood of firemen, from the Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author 'In the firehouse the men not only live and eat with each other, they play sports together, go off to drink together, help repair one another's houses, and, most important, share terrifying risks; their loyalties to each other must, by the demands of the dangers they face, be instinctive and absolute.' o writes David Halberstam, one of America's most distinguished reporters, in this stunning book about Engine 40, Ladder 35-one of the firehouses hardest hit in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center Towers. On the morning of September 11, 2001, two rigs carrying 13 men set out from this firehouse; only one fireman survived. Firehouse takes us to the very epicenter of the tragedy. Through the kind of intimate portraits of the men and their families that are Halberstam's trademark, we watch the day unfold. We come to understand the culture of the firehouse itself, what makes these gifted men want to be firemen, and why in so many instances they are eager to follow in their fathers' footsteps and serve in so dangerous a profession. And why more than anything else, it's not just a job, but a calling. This is journalism-as-history at its best, the story of what happens when one small institution gets caught in an apocalyptic day. It is a book that will move readers as few others have in our time.

David Halberstam (1934-2007) was the author of twenty-two books, including fifteen bestsellers. Born in New York City, Halberstam spent much of the 1960s as a reporter for the New York Times, covering the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights movement. His Vietnam reporting earned him both a George C. Polk Award and a 1964 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. Vanity Fair dubbed Halberstam "the Moses of American journalism," and the subjects of his books reflect his passion and range: war, foreign policy, history, and sports.

The Best and the Brightest (1962), his sixth book, a critique of the Kennedy administration's Vietnam policy, became a #1 bestseller. His next book, The Powers that Be, a study of four American media companies, was hailed by the New York Times as a "prodigy of research." Many of Halberstam's books explored themes in professional sports, including bestsellers The Teammates, a portrait of the friendship between baseball players Ted Williams, Dominic DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, and Bobby Doerr, and The Education of a Coach, a profile of New England Patriots' Coach Bill Belichick.