The Rising

The Twenty-Year Battle to Rebuild the World Trade Center

By: Larry Silverstein

Narrated by: Fred Sanders

Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins

Publisher's summary

The never-before-told inside story of the rebuilding of the World Trade Center–an epic tale of business, politics, and engineering by the man who spent two decades working to make it happen

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11 destroyed the World Trade Center, New Yorkers and Americans faced a critical set of questions: What should be done with the site? Could the towers be replaced? And how best to memorialize those lost on that day? For Larry Silverstein, a lifelong New Yorker who had signed a lease for the properties just a few months before the attacks, the answer was clear: America had to rebuild as quickly as possible.

In The Rising, Silverstein recounts in vivid detail his long battle to construct a new World Trade Center complex and to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood while also memorializing the victims of the attacks. Silverstein made history in 2001 when he signed a 99-year lease on the 10.6-million-square-foot World Trade Center for $3.25 billion. For the next twenty years, he navigated warring political interests, byzantine city bureaucracies, and resistant insurance companies, as well as the many challenges of designing, engineering, and constructing several new towers in the heart of downtown Manhattan. More than once the entire project almost folded, but today the buildings are nearly complete and the neighborhood is once again a thriving hub that draws hundreds of thousands of people a day.

The Rising is a vibrant portrait of the inner workings of New York City in the wake of its most profound tragedy, but it is also a master class in how to succeed in business despite all odds. Full of outsize characters and relentless adversity, this is a riveting book about a remarkable feat of vision and determination.

©2024 Larry Silverstein (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Silverstein’s account never lacks for melodrama....This classic New York saga about the symbiosis of grand civic ambition and rugged pragmatism stands tall."
—Publishers Weekly

"Silverstein displays a talent for making the complex and high-stakes game of New York City commercial real estate...surprisingly interesting. His...good and decent nature shines through his prose, as does considerable wisdom gleaned from a wildly successful career....Silverstein’s poignant and heartfelt description of what was lost—and what endured—in the wake of 9/11...will resonate with anyone who experienced that tumultuous period....Silverstein writes with panache, wit, and grace, and his is a story worth savoring. A compelling personal account of a uniquely American comeback."
—Kirkus Reviews

Eye opening

Wonderfully told story and legacy. Hard to put down. Happy it was completed in his lifetime with all the challenges.