Marblehead native discusses book on Marathon bombings

Marblehead native and author Jenna Russell shared her reflections on the Boston Marathon bombings – the subject of her book “Long Mile Home” — before an audience at the Lynn Museum last Thursday.?The thing about the Marathon is, everyone knows someone who runs it, or goes to watch,” Russell said following her talk. “Almost everyone?s been to it at least once. The connectedness is very personal.”In “Long Mile Home,” Russell and co-author Scott Helman (who was not at last week?s talk) told the story by focusing on individuals. One of them was Krystle Campbell, the Medford native who was one of three people who died in the bombings. Among the photos Russell showed the audience was one of Campbell?s parents at the Marathon memorial on the day it was dismantled.?They had not had a chance to visit it,” Russell said. “These are people who, of course, will never be the same.”Russell shared photos of 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester and 23-year-old BU graduate student Lingzi Lu, who also died in the bombings. She also showed a photo of MIT police officer Sean Collier, whom she said was “essentially assassinated” on the Thursday after the Marathon, during the manhunt for bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in the manhunt and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured hiding in a boat in Watertown.?Allegedly they came to the edge of pretty unimaginable violence,” Russell said. “We didn?t enter into (the story) thinking we?d find the answers to ?why.?”Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?s trial is scheduled for this fall.?There?s so many questions,” Russell said. “I would be hopeful we might learn a little bit more when and if a trial happens.”Russell also mentioned people who had been severely injured in the attacks, including Heather Abbott, a spectator from Newport, RI.?She got to the hospital on Monday and went straight to surgery,” Russell said. “Her left leg was badly injured. The surgeon was able to save it. Over the course of a week, there was a deterioration in her condition.?Doctors (gave her) a choice. She could choose to keep her leg and live a compromised life, never able to run again, with chronic pain and a limp. Or she could amputate her leg with a greater chance of reclaiming the life she once lived.”Russell discussed Abbott?s decision to amputate her leg and her journey of rehabilitation, including throwing out a ceremonial first pitch during a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park and returning to watch this year?s Marathon with her parents and friends at the Forum restaurant on Boylston Street, where she had been injured on April 15, 2013.?She jumped in and ran the very last stretch,” Russell said.Russell and Helman wrote the book after covering the Marathon bombings for the Boston Globe, where Russell has been a reporter since 2000, winning a Pulitzer Prize during that span. She has also written for the Swampscott Reporter.The story of the Marathon bombings will soon be told in the form of a TV movie.?If ever a story were made for the movies…,” Russell said. “They?ll start filming in the fall. I have mixed feelings about that. Let?s just hope they do it right. I have (no) control over that.”As for her own book, Russell said, “While it was a dark story, and a lot of people who talked to us said it was difficult to get through it, people who finished (the book) said it was amazing how much they learned about the story, how much there is of hopefulness and inspiration. It was a hard story to work on, getting to know these people in their moments of triumph and their most difficult moments.”