• Title: What is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11
• Author: Kenneth R. Feinberg
• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (May 13, 2005)
• ISBN: 1586483234

This is a must read book! I had two books left on my vacation, and decided to grab this one for the flight home. I read it in about three of the eight hours from Milan to Chicago.

Its a bit painful to read at times – it must have been so hard to view all the pain and suffering of people that had lost loved ones in the 9/11 terror attack, or had been disfigured but still alive. Feinberg has a very analytical style, but occasionally drops into deep feeling segments. He tells a story of a woman who had been given her husband’s remains, only to find out that he had actually lived for four days after 9/11, and another family, thinking he was their loved one, sat with him until he died. Very heartrenching stuff here….

Feinberg also goes to some length describing the rules they developed for this unique experiment, designed to keep people from suing the airlines when they were in financial trouble and still make sure everyone got money to help them through the difficult time.

At one point the Senate discussed extending the two year period for filing – Kenneth refused flat out, saying that deadlines help people reach decisions in such trying times. Lots of interesting tidbits like this inside the book as well.