After Ground Zero

Everyday Americans and the Unhealed Scars of 9/11

By: Mike Kelly

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eText | 23 July 2026 | Edition Number 1

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This first-hand reporting spanning from Ground Zero on the day of the 9/11 attacks through decades of trauma and healing offers a stark reminder of just how forcefully the events of September 11 and the war on terror have impacted the lives of countless Americans.

Mike Kelly was across the Hudson River when the two jets crashed into the World Trade Center's twin towers in downtown Manhattan on September 11, 2001. His immediate goal was to get to the scene and gather some first-hand reporting to file on deadline. But this was just the first step of a decades-long journey through another kind of rubble, through the pain left behind and the unhealed scars of people's lives in the wake of a terrorist attack.

After Ground Zero traces the lives of a diverse portrait of Americans forced to confront the pain and mystery of the terrorism that tore apart their lives beginning on that September morning. From Kelly's on-the-ground reporting at Ground Zero to Iraq, the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to Washington, D.C. and various spots in between, the book follows a line of survivors that range from first responders such as police, fire fighters, clergy, and construction workers, to soldiers deployed overseas, loved ones of those killed, and numerous others as they search for answers, policy changes, reparations and accountability, faith, and healing. Kelly's up-close storytelling is a powerful reminder of just how impactful the 9/11 attacks were and the ripple effect they have had in the decades that followed.