The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001

"Mary: So this is a nonfiction title about 9/11. It’s snips of memoirs: just like Robin said, memoirs are very attractive as audiobooks because you feel like you’re hearing somebody’s personal story told to you over a cup of coffee. The Only Plane in the Sky is an amazing work that takes a nonfiction book and makes it even more immediate, and brings in that emotion. Robin: This book is incredibly powerful and important in many ways. The author calls it an oral history but, to me, it doesn’t become a real oral history until it’s an aural history. When I looked at the book in print I thought, ‘I can’t figure out how to get through this.’ It’s one sentence by one person and then another sentence by another person. They’re all identified and they’re talking about a particular time in the day, but I just couldn’t imagine reading it all with my eyes. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Did you have that impression Mary? Mary: Absolutely. The other thing is that The Only Plane in the Sky has clips of the actual transcripts, the actual sounds from that moment in time. So it’s not only an oral history, as it’s subtitled, it’s also a documentary. It’s a social history that we can hear with our ears, in the way that it actually happened and in the way that the people in the book meant for it to be heard, those little individual snippets. It’s interesting to compare and contrast this Audiobook of the Year from the Audie Awards with Lincoln in the Bardo , which was the Audie Awards Audiobook of the Year in 2018. I tried to read Lincoln in the Bardo and it’s the same sort of thing, little snippets that are identified with footnotes. I couldn’t get through it reading it in print, but the audiobook is astounding. That’s another one where I don’t think the print book should exist anymore, only the audiobook. Mary: It’s a punch to the stomach listening to it. Robin: It’s very important and incredibly powerful and lasting. It’s a documentary that I think will be cherished as a record of an extraordinary time with actual comments from the real people that were involved."

"Robin: It’s a spectacular production from the printed book. It was an incredible labour of love and meticulous care, with 45 actors and Holter Graham doing the surrounding narrative. The integration of all that material is extraordinary. Mary: It also points out to the large amount of teamwork that has to go into an audiobook. It’s different from a solitary author sitting down and writing words. An author does have an editor and a copyeditor and the same is true for an audiobook. Some audiobooks definitely display that quality production factor, that amazing sound quality, the editing. The producers are the hidden heroes of audiobooks."