Summary
I spent ten years covering Columbine: once I started, I had to understand. I was driven by two questions: why did they do it, and how did this town respond?
What I found surprised me. Pain, I expected, the redemption caught me off guard. Thousands faced the unthinkable; most overcame it. I was amazed by the way so many wrestled free.
Awards & Reviews
Columbine has won the B&N Discover Award and the Goodreads Choice Award. It is a finalist for the Edgar Award, LA Times Book Award, and Audie Award (winners announced in April). Columbine appeared on two dozen Best of 2009 lists and was declared Top Education Book of 2009 by the American School Board Journal. I really appreciate the support. Click for details.
New Expanded Paperback Edition
— New 12-page afterword: "Forgiveness," with startling new revelations about the killers' parents.
— Actual journal pages from Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold.
— Book Club Discussion Questions (also available at Oprah.com).
— Diagram of Columbine High School and environs.
— Large-print edition now available. Other formats include Kindle, Nook, and unabridged audibook on CD, cassette, MP3 on CD, or audible.com. Autographed copies available.
Just released, March 2010. Purchase.
Description (Book Jacket)
On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold left an indelible stamp on the American psyche. Their goal was simple: to blow up their school, Oklahoma City-style, and to leave "a lasting impression on the world." Their bombs failed, but the ensuing shooting defined a new era of school violence-irrevocably branding every subsequent shooting "another Columbine."
When we think of Columbine, we think of the Trench Coat Mafia; we think of Cassie Bernall, the girl we thought professed her faith before she was shot; and we think of the boy pulling himself out of a school window-the whole world was watching him. Now, in a riveting piece of journalism nearly ten years in the making, comes the story none of us knew. In this revelatory book, Dave Cullen has delivered a profile of teenage killers that goes to the heart of psychopathology. He lays bare the callous brutality of mastermind Eric Harris and the quavering, suicidal Dylan Klebold, who went to the Columbine prom three days earlier and obsessed about love in his journal.
The result is an astonishing account of two good students with lots of friends, who were secretly stockpiling a basement cache of weapons, recording their raging hatred, and manipulating every adult who got in their way. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold left signs everywhere, described by Cullen with a keen investigative eye and psychological acumen. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of police files, FBI psychologists, and the boys' tapes and diaries, he gives the first complete account of the Columbine High School massacre.
In the tradition of Helter Skelter and In Cold Blood, Columbine is destined to be a classic. A close-up portrait of violence, a community rendered helpless, and police blunders and cover-ups, it is a compelling and utterly human portrait of two killers--an unforgettable cautionary tale for our time.
Book Trailer
This tight little video by a filmmaker from the South Park team summarizes the book really well in three minutes. You will meet Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and get a sense of what drove them and what they wrought. This is probably the easiest way to gauge whether Columbine is right for you.
"What's amazing is how much of Cullen's book still comes as a surprise. . . . [Cullen's] nuanced dissection of the differences between Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold is first-rate."
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NY Times Book Review
"Cullen makes it work because he insists on framing the killers in human terms . . . his perspective is what resonates."
– LA Times
"The pacing of an action movie and the complexity of a Shakespearean drama . . . The language is so vivid you can almost smell the gunpowder and the fear.
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Newsweek
"Accomplishes an astonishing number of things in compelling, articulate prose . . . it roils the heart."
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Miami Herald
"It opens with a proclamation of love and concludes with an image of redemption, and what unfolds in the pages between them is extraordinary."
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Charlotte Observer
"Graphic and emotionally vivid; spectacularly researched and analyzed."
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Booklist (starred review)
"I'm happy to report that [Cullen] hit it out of the ballpark."
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Denver Post
"Beautifully written but deeply haunting."
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NY Observer
"Read Columbine for the stunning reportage. Admire the heroism of students and teachers."
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Huffington Post
"An astonishingly comprehensive look at the incident and the decade of struggle."
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Chicago Tribune
"Makes us feel intensely for those who were killed and wounded."
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USA Today
"I defy anyone who is a parent of a teenager, especially a teenage boy, to read Dave Cullen's Columbine with any kind of dispassion or objectivity. . . . Dave Cullen is a great journalist."
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Daily Beast
More: About three dozen Columbine reviews, with much longer passages & links.
From the Publisher
Dear Reader:
I was drawn to Dave Cullen’s work by a New York Times column by David Brooks, who praised Cullen’s freelance writing on the Columbine High School massacre. Cullen had been on the scene at Columbine High School from day one and had distinguished himself as the most authoritative writer on the subject. I asked him to write a short book on the subject.
That was about ten years ago. Since then, this gifted and relentless writer has lived with this story every day, going to extraordinary lengths to understand this tragedy from every relevant perspective: through the eyes of the families, school officials, investigators, community leaders, and most amazingly, the killers themselves, who left behind such extensive personal testimony and evidence about their plans that the author has been able to do something truly remarkable – document the descent of two teenage boys from a typical adolescent life into madness and murder.
What is shocking about Columbine is just how ordinary these two boys seemed. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold loved their parents, did their homework, worked at the local pizzeria, and – contrary to widely reported accounts – were well-liked by their peers. With precision and perspective that will haunt and amaze you, Dave Cullen has crafted an indelible portrait of American youth that is at once familiar and horrifying. Better than any author I have ever read, he describes the psychological journey through which young men become killers.
This is not an easy story to confront, but I have no doubt that Columbine will be regarded as a classic of literary nonfiction and the definitive work on the community that suffered one of the most violent tragedies of our time.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Karp
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
TWELVE
