9781433290466

An AudioFile Best Audiobooks of the Year for Nonfiction & Culture
An Audible.com Best of 2009 for Nonfiction, #3
A New York Times Notable Book of 2009
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A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2009
A Los Angeles Times Favorite of 2009

Ten years in the works, Columbine is a masterpiece of reportage. Dave Cullen, the acclaimed journalist who followed the massacre from day one, reconstructs the psychological journey of two teenage boys who became killers. Over the course of this gripping narrative, Cullen approaches his subjects with unrivaled care and insight. What emerges are shattering portraits of the killers, the victims, and the community that suffered one of the most socially and historically important shooting tragedies of the twentieth century.

DAVE CULLEN is a journalist and author who has contributed to Slate, Salon, and the New York Times. He is considered the nation's foremost authority on the Columbine killers and has also written extensively on Evangelical Christians, gays in the military, politics, and pop culture. A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Boulder, Colorado, he has won several writing awards.

Colorado journalist Dave Cullen's meticulous research dispels the myths and hasty assumptions surrounding the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. Cullen's conclusions are drawn from hundreds of interviews and the wealth of information left behind by shooters Harris and Klebold. Apparently, Columbine was a painstakingly planned bombing gone wrong. Only when the bombs failed to detonate did the shooting begin. Don Leslie's nuanced reading of the disturbing material makes clear that the boys were not goths, gay, or bullied. Leslie is mesmerizing as he makes Cullen's case that Harris was predisposed to psychopathy and Klebold was erratic, depressed, and suicidal. Once they got together, the dyad became deadly. If this important book were fiction, it would be devastating. Knowing it really happened is heartbreaking. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine