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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

"The School" by C.J. Chivers

This article, about a Chechen terrorist attack on a Russian school on the first day of school in 2004, won the prestigious Michael Kelly Award and is maybe the best magazine article I've ever read. These are the opening lines:

"Kazbek Misikov stared at the bomb hanging above his family. It was a simple device, a plastic bucket packed with explosive paste, nails, and small metal balls. It weighed perhaps eight pounds. The existence of this bomb had become a central focus of his life. If it exploded, Kazbek knew, it would blast shrapnel into the heads of his wife and two sons, and into him as well, killing them all."


http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0606BESLAN_140?click=main_sr

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