Quick Take
- Narrator: Ray Porter brings steady emotional intelligence to DeFede's mosaic of individuals, preventing sentiment without stripping warmth.
- Subjects: Community and hospitality in crisis, the human scale of historical events, unexpected connection
- Tone: Quietly luminous, with grief held alongside genuine warmth
- Bottom line: A carefully reported, moving audiobook about what Gander gave seven thousand strangers, and what those strangers gave back.
Gander, Newfoundland is a town of ten thousand people on an island at the edge of Canada, and on September 11, 2001, it absorbed seven thousand strangers in a matter of hours. I started this audiobook on a September morning, which was not accidental, and I finished it in one sitting. Jim DeFede's account of what happened at Gander International Airport when thirty-eight diverted jetliners landed and their passengers stepped out into a community that had never asked to be a refuge is one of those nonfiction narratives that feels almost implausibly hopeful, except that every detail is documented and real.
DeFede Weaves Dozens of Separate Threads
The genius of DeFede's construction is that he resists the temptation to write a single continuous narrative and instead weaves together the stories of specific passengers and specific Gander residents, giving each thread enough space to develop before they converge. The result is a portrait of a community response that is both institutional and intensely personal. Local bus drivers who had been on strike came off the picket lines to transport the stranded passengers. A middle school opened its showers and computer labs. Linens and food were donated at a scale that required real logistical coordination, not just goodwill. DeFede is careful to show both: the spontaneous generosity and the organized effort behind it.
Ray Porter narrates, and he brings his considerable authority to a text that requires steady emotional control rather than dramatic range. Porter is an audiobook narrator who excels at nonfiction that is emotionally rich without being sentimental, and this is exactly that kind of book. He handles the shifts between the collective story of the town and the individual stories of specific passengers, including a woman whose husband was confirmed dead in the towers, a couple who had their wedding at the Gander Animal Shelter while stranded, with a tonal precision that prevents either grief or joy from becoming maudlin. His performance keeps the book grounded in the actual rather than the symbolic.
Come From Away Fans Get the Fuller Story
This audiobook has found a second wave of readers through its connection to the musical Come From Away, which dramatized the same events. DeFede's source text and the musical are different in character: the musical compresses and theatricalizes; the book gives you time and specificity. Both are valuable, but for readers who loved Come From Away, the audiobook offers the version where you understand why each person was on each plane and what they carried home. One reviewer wrote that the book made them 'laugh and cry,' which captures the emotional range DeFede navigates across six and a half hours.
The reviewer who had personal connections to the area, a mother from St. John's, a father stationed in Gander, noted that the book confirmed something they already felt intuitively about Newfoundlanders. That kind of recognition, where a book validates and articulates something you believed but could not have said as well, is one of nonfiction's most satisfying effects. For listeners without that personal connection, DeFede provides enough cultural and geographic context that the world of Gander becomes vivid and comprehensible rather than abstract.
Still, Inevitably, a 9/11 Book Underneath
The book's episodic structure is its strength, but it also means that no single character receives the kind of sustained development you would get from a full biographical treatment. DeFede is working with dozens of people, and some of the individual threads feel abbreviated just as they become interesting. This is not a significant flaw but it is worth noting for listeners who prefer a single sustained perspective over a mosaic approach. The book is also, inevitably, a 9/11 book, and while DeFede keeps the violence and horror of that day at a careful distance, the context is always present. Listeners for whom that proximity is difficult should approach accordingly.
Porter Keeps the Bus Drivers' Generosity Concrete
The audiobook's pacing is one of its underrated assets. At just over six hours, it is long enough to give the individual stories real weight but short enough to sustain forward momentum throughout. The structure of diverted planes arriving, passengers disembarking, townspeople mobilizing, and the slow dawning of connection between them provides natural narrative rhythm that Porter's narration reinforces rather than fights.
The specific acts of generosity DeFede documents resist the abstractions that 9/11 narratives sometimes slip into. Bus drivers on strike coming off the picket lines to transport passengers. A kennel keeper who stayed through the nights so that animals on the grounded planes did not have to remain caged without care. A middle school in a small Canadian town that became, for five days, a communications hub for thousands of stranded travelers trying to reach their families. These are not symbolic gestures; they are logistical responses to a logistical crisis, performed by people who had no preparation for what arrived at their airport. Porter's narration honors that concreteness by keeping his register grounded throughout, never inflating these moments into something they were not, which paradoxically makes them feel larger than any inflation could have achieved.
Ground-Level Kindness, Not Political Analysis
Fans of Come From Away who want the fuller, more detailed account behind the musical will find this audiobook essential. Anyone drawn to true stories of community and human response to crisis, without the cynicism that genre sometimes produces, will find it rewarding. Listeners interested in 9/11 history from an unexpected angle, what happened to the seven thousand people who landed in a small Canadian town and the community that received them, will find DeFede's research thorough and his storytelling clear. This is not the right choice for listeners wanting analysis of the political or security dimensions of that day; this is about the human response at ground level.
Good to Know
Do I need to have seen Come From Away before listening to this audiobook?
No, and in some ways the reverse is more useful: DeFede's book provides the detailed factual foundation that the musical compresses and dramatizes. They work independently, but the audiobook rewards listeners who want more depth than any theatrical production can offer.
Is this audiobook primarily about 9/11 or about the Gander community?
It is genuinely both, but the focus is on Gander and its residents rather than on the attacks themselves. DeFede keeps the violence of that day at a distance and foregrounds the community response, which makes the audiobook unusual in the 9/11 genre.
How long is the audiobook, and is the pacing consistent throughout?
The audiobook runs six hours and twenty-eight minutes. The pacing is consistently strong, with DeFede's mosaic structure and Porter's narration creating natural momentum that keeps the multiple storylines from feeling scattered.
