The Day the World Came to Town

On the morning of September 11, 2001, U.S. airspace shuts down and dozens of transatlantic flights are sent to Gander, Newfoundland. The town has roughly 10,000 residents. Within hours it must house and feed nearly 7,000 stranded passengers and crew.

This is narrative non-fiction, reported by journalist Jim DeFede, who spent months in Gander talking with residents, pilots, air traffic controllers and passengers. From those interviews he reconstructs the six days that follow the closure of the skies.

The book has no single thread. It moves between many people and many small scenes. Bus drivers on strike leave their picket line to carry passengers to shelters. Families give spare rooms to strangers. Travelers arrive tired and frightened and are met with hot meals, showers and care that asks for nothing back.

The tone is warm and human-scaled, set against the national tragedy unfolding elsewhere. It suits readers who want an account of how ordinary people responded to an emergency, told through their own recollections.

First published in 2002 and later reissued in an updated edition, it won the Christopher Award. It also inspired the Tony-winning musical Come From Away and that show's 2021 filmed stage production.