The Day the World Came to Town

Reading Jim DeFede's THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN: 9/11 IN GANDER, NEWFOUNDLAND was like drinking a glass of cold water on a scorching hot day. You can feel the liquid travel through your body as it quenches your thirst.

I read THE DAY THE WORLD CAME TO TOWN in less than two days and several times while reading it could feel my heart expand in response to the indescribable generosity of the townspeople of Gander and Newfoundland.

The book is mainly about what happened in Gander when thirty-eight jet planes were forced to land there because of 9/11. It's about the strength of small-town spirit that permeates and influences how a place of 10,000 residents provides hospitality to 6,595 passengers over the course of almost a week. That includes meals, beds, sheets, pillows, clothes, showers, and tours of the town. 

The horrific events of 9/11 that caused the airspace over the United States to be closed also inspired an incredible outpouring of human decency from our neighbors to the North.

Especially during a time when we are experiencing such soul-draining division in the world, DeFede's book offers solid evidence that miracles happen in a place where trust and respect are as common as the air we breathe. 

POSTSCRIPT: In March of 2017 a Broadway musical premiered, based on the remarkable true story that inspired Defede's book. It's called COME FROM AWAY. It is still running and now has productions mounted in Melbourne, Toronto and London.

Ben Brantley, in his review of COME FROM AWAY in the New York Times, wrote it was "the catharsis we need for this American moment." Jack Westerfield in his Newsweek review stated, "It does what all the best musicals do. Takes you to a place you never want to leave."