Windows on the World a novel written by Frédéric Beigbeder was first published in France in 2003. The English translation by Frank Wynne was released March 30, 2005 by Miramax Books.
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The novel alternates between two voices: the first Carthew Yorsten, a Texan realtor accompanied by his two sons (ages 7 and 9) who are having a tourist-style breakfast at Windows on the World restaurant on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001; the second, the voice of the author writing the story while having breakfast at a restaurant atop a Paris skyscraper (Tour Montparnasse). Each chapter, averaging three pages a piece, represents one minute from 8.30 am - just before the time the building is hit at 8:46am - to 10.29, just after its collapse at 10:28am.
Max Pugh a dual nationality French / English filmmaker is working on an "animated feature drama/documentary adaptation". [1]
The novel debuted at No 2 on the French best seller list and won the prestigious Prix Interallié in 2003.
It won the 2005 Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction awarded by the British newspaper. [2]
Independent literary editor and judge Boyd Tonkin said: "Frederic Beigbeder's winning novel pulls off the impossible - it creates fiction about the tragedy of 11 September and our responses to it," [2]