Perfect Strangers: Friendship, Strength, and Recovery After Boston’s Worst Day

It takes a remarkable person to convince you they have gained more than they lost after having a leg blown off in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. But that’s exactly what Sdoia does in her frank, personal account of that horrific day. Describing herself as stubborn and determined even as a kid, she conveys that strength in relating how she survived after realizing she would lose her right leg and might bleed to death. In a spare but emotional register, Sdoia describes how three people rescued her. College student Shores Salter ran into the chaos and held the tourniquet tight enough that she didn’t bleed out. No-nonsense cop Shana Cottone commandeered a police van to get her to the hospital. Mike Materia, a big, stoic Boston firefighter and Iraq War veteran, got her off the street and into the van. The book movingly describes how the four of them, bonding over the rescue and Sdoia’s difficult recovery, became as close as family. Sdoia is unsparing in describing her own weaknesses as well as her strength, but this candor only makes her story all the more inspiring. [em]Agent: Katherine Flynn, Kneerim and Williams. (Apr.) [/em]