Stronger

Jeff Bauman was a spectator at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, standing near the finish line while he waited for his girlfriend to come down the final stretch. A bomb detonated at his feet. When he came to, the day after the surgery that followed, he had lost both legs and had only been gone from the race for about a day and a half.

Before he could speak, the tube in his throat had to come out, and he could not say a word. He asked for a notepad and scribbled a short message: he had seen the man responsible, and the man had looked straight at him. That note helped launch one of the largest manhunts in American history and marked the start of Jeff's slow, painful climb back to a new life.

Written in his own voice, this memoir follows Jeff through the attack, his long recovery, and the public attention that came with being the face of the bombing's survivors. It is a personal account for readers interested in the events of that week in Boston and in how one person rebuilt himself afterward.