On April 20, 1999, two boys 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 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 came to stockpile a basement cache of weapons, to record their raging hatred, and to manipulate every adult who got in their way. They 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 boy's tapes and diaries, he gives the first complete account of the Columbine tragedy.

In the tradition of HELTER SKELTER and IN COLD BLOOD, COLUMBINE is destined to be a classic. A close-up portrait of hatred, a community rendered helpless, and the police blunders and cover-ups, it is a compelling and utterly human portrait of two killers-an unforgettable cautionary tale for our times.

Dave Cullen is the author of the upcoming PARKLAND, and the New York Times bestseller COLUMBINE.

After PARKLAND will come a book on two gay soldiers, 20 years in the making, which was nearing completion when Parkland struck.

Dave has written for New York Times, BuzzFeed, Vanity Fair, New Republic, Times of London, Newsweek, Guardian, Washington Post, Lapham's Quarterly, Slate, Salon, The Millions, and Daily Beast.

(Columbine is summarized concisely in this three minute Columbine shooting intro video (book trailer.))

More on my gay soldiers book. To be notified when it's published, email dave@davecullen.com with subject line "notify".

Dave spent ten years writing and researching Columbine. He was driven by two questions: why did they kill, and what became of the survivors? The surprise was that most of what we "know" is wrong. It wasn't about the jocks, goths or the Trenchcoat Mafia. The killers didn't even see themselves as school shooters: their primary focus was the bombs.

Columbine spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists. It won the Edgar Award, Barnes & Noble's Discover Award, the Goodreads Choice Award, and The Truth About The Fact's Literary Nonfiction Book of the Year Award. It was a finalist for the LA Times Book Award, the ALA's Alex Award, the Audie Award, and the MPIBA Book Award. Columbine was named to two dozen Best of 2009 lists, including the New York Times, LA Times and Publishers Weekly. It was declared Top Education Book of 2009 by the American School Board Journal.

Dave lived in Denver while writing and researching the book. He recently moved to New York City and travels extensively to high schools and colleges.

For anyone looking for more info, some links: Columbine intro video, my Columbine research site, Columbine Teacher’s Guide and gay soldiers book.

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Dave's second book, Soldiers First, is due from HarperCollins, in 2019:

Two gay colonels quietly battle for love and freedom inside the great American war machine rumbling through the Middle East. A love story and a soldier's story — at war.

Written by a former solider, who has followed these soldiers a decade and a half, Soldiers First tells their gripping story, before, during and after the policy that played havoc with their lives.