"[a] nuanced portrait...[the] up-close moments,
flashbacks throughout the chronological memoir, make for a compelling
ride...into the minds of our three heroes, all in their early 20s, and
the chain of events that put them in position to stop what could have
become one of the West's deadliest terrorist attacks..." --Washington Post
"...a
captivating book ...an exciting and gripping tale...Throughout the
book, the reader will be struck repeatedly by the ordinariness of the
three Americans. There was nothing in their past that suggested they
would rise to the occasion so dramatically and successfully when needed.
Their actions seem to prove the old adage that heroes are almost always
ordinary people who, when confronted with great challenges, respond in
an extraordinary fashion. How wonderful to be reminded that all of us
have such a capacity." --Christian Science Monitor
"[Anthony
Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone] demonstrated remarkable
bravery and acted without regard for their own safety in order to subdue
a heavily armed individual who appeared intent on causing mass
casualties. . . . [T]heir heroic actions may have prevented a far worse
tragedy." --President Barack Obama
Anthony Sadler is a senior at Sacramento State University, majoring in Kinesiology and Athletic Training. He lives in Sacramento.
Alek Skarlatos
is a specialist in the Oregon National Guard. A former student of
Umpqua Community College, he was recently a finalist on season 21 of Dancing with the Stars. He lives in Roseburg, Oregon.
Spencer Stone is a staff sergeant in the United States Air Force. He lives in Sacramento.
Jeffrey E. Stern is the author of The Last Thousand: One School's Promise in a Nation at War.
He has been named both a Pulitzer Center fellow for crisis reporting
and a graduate fellow at the Stanford Center for International Conflict
and Negotiation. Stern's reporting has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Foreign Policy, Atlantic, Newsweek, Slate, Time, and New Republic. He has also been featured on PBS News Hour, NPR Morning Edition, and Morning Joe, among others.