The Woman Who Wasn't There: The True Story of an Incred… (2024)

Alice in wonderland

Not knowing anything about this case of a fake survivor of the 9/11 tragedy enhanced my reading experience of this book.
What for some readers would be a reiteration of news articles they’ve read, was for me a suspenseful mystery story. The author cleverly had keeping me guessing about the impostor.
Alas. Not able to resist the urge to have a peek at the reviews, and going against my better judgment, I prematurely learned who the cheater was.
There’s not much that surprises me anymore, but while reading this book, I fell off my chair repeatedly.
Unknowingly, this author also succeeded in penning down the most accurate account of a histrionic personality disorder you will ever lay your eyes on.

This book was sort of entertaining but at the end of it all, the authors knew nothing about Tania Head other than that she decided to play a 9/11 victim and tell all kinds of unlikely lies. These lies brought her to the forefront of the 9/11 survivor movement and made her a star of sorts.

The book explains what she did and how a handful of people became her pets as she scammed and lied, but at no point does this book ever explain Tania Head. We ended up knowing remarkably little about her real life. We got snippets from her childhood but we know nothing about Tania or her motivations.

Of course, Tania herself was unwilling to discuss anything. But when you can't get enough information to write a book you don't write a book. The reactions of a handful of people whose lives we know very little about don't really complete the picture. The reaction of one high school friend who was able to tell us very little about Head wasn't enough. All we know is that this strange little woman scammed people, which could have been covered in a Vanity Fair article.

Most important is that we never really get the reaction of the family of the key victim in this - the man Tania said she married, a man who died in the attacks on 9/11. This man never knew her, and she used his name openly in the public as her husband. It was a key part of her scam. Out of sensitivity to the family that was dragged into this ridiculous charade, they do not discuss the man, his family, their reaction or anything that would give a real human face to the harm Tania Head did.

I can understand that. I really can. But as I said above, if you don't have enough information to write a compelling narrative, you don't write one.

So we have 287 pages, very short chapters, of a woman telling lies no one should have been able to believe. She is telling them to an audience whose lives ultimately mean nothing to us other than respecting their experiences on that horrible day because they're just foils to a woman whose lies never really could stand in the light of day. We know nothing about Head or her motivations other than that she must have a lot of charisma in order for people to have bought her crappy lies. We know nothing about the impact on the survivor community other than the handful of one dimensional side players who played a foil to Head.

All of this is problematic when you realize that none of Tania Head's lies were worth a damn. This was not a woman who could weave a seamless narrative. She was extremely obese and indicated that a young man carried her out of the building. She said her arm was hanging by a few ligaments and was in the hospital for weeks but could not speak of the doctors or the nurses who helped her. She described the man she claimed she was married to as either her husband or her fiance. She never produced items for a 9/11 memorial museum that she promised. Not a single person who survived remembered seeing her in the Towers. And of course, the company she worked for never, ever heard of her. And yet she got away with this narrative for years. And we don't know why because the pictures of Tania are not of a woman whose appearance speaks of much charm and the descriptions of her speeches don't really seem like they would have much resonance.

The most annoying element of this book is that in most books wherein we are treated to the unfolding of a scam, we get to see how someone uncovers the scam. In this book the hoax is unraveled by the New York Times because they finally asked all the questions any sane person should have asked. But we are not privy to the process the reporter went through as they uncovered Tania's lies. One of the most compelling elements of a book like this and we are not permitted to see it as it happens. We get all the lies and all the people buying the lies that no reasonable person would have bought and we don't even get the catharsis of watching as it unravels for Head. That's a problem.

And all of this is even more problematic if you are looking at paying $26 for a book that cannot tell you most of the story you need to know in order to give a crap.

This short book which can be read in one or two sittings, though the story it describes is anything but short: the astounding story of Tania Head, the woman who on 9/11/2001 was at the 78th floor of World Trade Center 2 (The South Tower) when United Airlines 175 hit that floor, making her one of the very few who survived the direct impact. Badly burned on her arm, she managed to escape ftom the tower, crawling through rubble, witnessing the horror first hand. Her fiance, Dave, didn't make it: he was trapped in the North Tower as it collapsed. Tania joined a survivor support group and became very active, even negotiation access to Ground Zero for survivors, which was something they didn't have before. She became the guide at the site of the attacks, recounting her story in vivid detail, introducing herself as a person who survived it. Important politcal figures such as former NYC major Rudy Giulianim current major Mike Bloomberg and even state governor George Pataki have been captivated by her story. She made speeches at colleges, at support groups. Thousands of people have been moved by her story, and she became a survival authority; the representant and voice for those who lived through and after the 9/11 tragedy, coping with her own experiences and helping others survive theirs.

Only her story is completely, entirely made up. Tania Head was not at the towers when the planes hit.Her real name is not even Tania, but Alicia; Alicia Estevez Head. She was not a US citizen; her claims of degrees from Harvard and Stanford are without support, as there is no record of her being a student at these institutions. Merryl Lynch, the firm where she claims to have worked in World Trade Center has never heard of her; her supposed husband's family has never heard of her, either. What is striking most of all is the fact that she was not even in the country at that time. She was studying in Barcelona at a busines school just a week after the attacks, and her classmates cannot recall her talking about losing her fiance or showing any recent injuries. She told them that her injured arm had been a result of driving accident, and another time that it was a result of a horse riding accident. She first visited the U.S. in 2003, where she adapted the persona of the most incredible of survivors.

Tania's remarkable fraud shows no sing of being done for financial purposes, and indeed she has done good for the community of survivors, such as the granting them the access to the site of the attacks. However, the book reveals ugly details about her slowly but steadily growing to be in control of the group, and treating others as her stepping stones to fame; throwing out members of the group who put her story in possible danger, and forcing another member to listen to audio tapes from her therapy where she was telling the story with screams and shouts, bringing back the terror to that person in vivid detail. Tania/Alicia was an ugly person, a fraud of the biggest sort, stealing not money and wealth ,but friendships and emotions, taking attention away from those who have been really hurt and putting it on herself. How could any other survivor match her story? She took parts of their stories and formed the biggest, most tragic and most incredible story of them all. People wanted to believe her, wanted to support her, and she wanted exactly that.

The complexity and depth of the deception of Tania/Alicia is remarkable; she seems to have appeared out of nowhere in 2003, dressed up as the 9/11 survivor. But what about her former life? How could anyone who knew her not notice her, since she was in television, newspapers and other media? She does not seem to have any contacts aside those she made in the survivor's group, not a sliver of her former life hanging around her immaculate fraud dress. This is the most incredible aspect of the story. How could a person who relished being in the spotlight not have anyone see her for what she was? How could she manage to put this masquerade going for so long, in the age of the internet? Did she not realize that sooner or later someone will be suspicious about her story, her not wanting to talk to reporters and will engage in an investigation, and that then her whole new life will fall apart?

The BBC did an excellent documentary on this issue, titled The 9/11 Faker. It can be watched on YouTube and I recommend it.

This is one of those OMG books. All I can say is it's a good thing that I knew the outcome going in.

I'm giving this 4 stars but this is not a story that warrants "like" I'm not going to say anything more but would love to read or discuss this book with a group. This would allow an exploration of the psychological make-up of the people whose stories are told.

One thing I really liked about this book was how the authors laid out the story. They could have chosen to do it in a far different way. It was also heart rending to hear the stories of the 9/11 survivors and how little they were considered in the aftermath.

Some reviewers found the story appalling, some found some redemption in it. I am still weighing the whole.

There is no doubt that this woman's story was an incredible deception, so the first questions I asked were "how did she get away with it and why did she claim to be a survivor of 9/11?". I did not find the answers .....in fact, I didn't find much in this book that was worth the read.

Instead we get only a description of her involvement with the true survivors and the founding of an organization for those suffering from loss and PTSD. She took charge of the group and did some amazing work to share with the world the horrors suffered by those who were really there. The true survivors adored her and thought she was such a strong woman since she also "lost her husband" in the north tower. But no one ever questioned some of her descriptions of what happened to her on that infamous day which seemed to change as time passed. That was what I was looking for but the author only discussed her work with survivors and appeared to be an apologist for this woman's deception.

The book, written in the third person, suddenly changed to first person narrative for no particular reason and further muddied the flow. I felt the writing was below par and I kept waiting for the big reveal that this woman was a liar. It finally happened in the last few pages and the book ended. It was a disappointment and left so many unanswered questions. I wouldn't recommend it but that is just my opinion. Read at your own risk!!

I found that there was much more to this than a simple story of deception. It addresses so many other phenomena that we have given names and attributed qualities to and are unable to see as anything else than what we know.

INVENTED REALITY vs (F)ACTUAL REALITY

In a world of internet and virtual communication, our perception of reality has been changing at a fast pace. But an invented reality that is incorporated into actual reality is a concept that leaves many of us aghast. It is called deception and we all know deception is bad, right?

Tania Head is a remarkable woman. One needs guts to invent a story and make it public for the world to see and scrutinize. One needs a pinch of madness as well.
Alicia Esteve (aka Tania Head) lied about being a 9/11 survivor, lied about losing a loved one, invented a love story with a man she never met and, most unbelievable of all, she lived this lie for years in front of myriad prying eyes. She became the poster-child of a significant even in world history and reveled in the attention. She would tell her story to anybody who would listen and she displayed symptoms of post-traumatic stress, bouts of depression and survival guilt.

Was she really that good of an actress?

She probably was. However, I can’t help but feel that the only way Tania Head could have sustained her lie was to live it. To believe it. I am fairly certain that after a time Alicia Esteve became Tania Head in her own mind. She did live through it all; she did have a great love that she lost; she did struggle with the consequences of everything that happened. In the end, she did help a lot of survivors through their pain. She fought relentlessly for their rights, as many of the survivors themselves testify. Or did she? Did this really happen? If there was no Tania Head, if Tania Head was the invention of a sick mind, how was she a part of the 9/11 survivors’ organisation, how did she become its president, how did she chaperone New York’s most prominent men around Ground Zero?

Did Tania Head exist or did she not? Where does invented reality end and where does actual reality start?

The story of Tania Head is the story of everyone. If we look deep down, we might find that most of us have little invented realities that we live, secretly or openly, that give us guilty conscience or a purpose in life. Or even happy memories! For who is to say what reality really is?

GOOD vs BAD

The true intentions behind this deception will probably never be known. Not even by the deceiver herself. As with anything, I doubt that there is one single thing that made her do what she did. It started out as a lie and the ball kept rolling until there wasn’t any stopping it. Whatever the initial thought, it is unlikely to have much to do with the final outcome. Whether it was a way to kill time, to feel important, to gain sympathy, in the end it turned out to be a life story. Furthermore, it turned out to be a life-changing story. A story of survival, of stoicism, of heroism. The eternal story of good defeating evil…until, in a split second, it became the story of evil violating good.

After the truth has come out, the general feeling has been of shock and betrayal. But the question remains of what would have happened if it had never been discovered? Would Tania Head have become the villain she is portrayed as today or would she have been canonized as the ultimate survivor? Is she bad because she lied to everybody or is she good because she helped so many people throughout the most horrific time of their lives?

Where is the fine line between good and bad? Is there a line between them? Are they two different concepts at all?

TRAGEDY AS A NECESSITY

September 11 has become an emblematic date in history. For all the suffering and unimaginable horror it brought about, this day now is an integral part of USA’s identity. It is often made reference to; it is still talked about; it is learned about in schools. It is a milestone of the past, the way many wars, disasters, dictatorships are.

And, as with any grand event, it became a tribune for all kinds of human emotions to be played out publicly. It created its heroes. It had its villains. It had its victims, both the dead and the living. It killed many lives, but gave purpose to many others.
It gave Alicia Esteve a reason to wake up in the morning.

In the wake of tragedy, many people thrive.

In a way, Tania Head was a collective image of all human faces that 9/11 represented. She was a victim of her own folly, a hero for some, the most devious villain. In her, like in everything, good and bad, true and false were inseparably intertwined – the same way she was with her fiancé who perished in the North Tower. Or so she claimed.

I have watched two documentaries about Tania Head. In both documentaries, I walked away feeling a little sad for the woman. Clearly, she was/is dealing with mental issues.

After reading this book, I have no sympathy for Tania Head. She lied her way into a position of power. She interfered with the mental well-being of actual survivors. She used and abused her position of power. She manipulated people who trusted her and cared for her. I don't even want to think about what she did to the family of the man she claimed to be her husband or the Crowther family.

I enjoyed the book, only because I was into the mystery of this woman. I didn't find out too many facts that I didn't already know from watching the documentaries. There was little biographical information about her, same as in the docs. No explanation was offered as to why she did what she did. The book was well-written and short. An easy read. Great story with alot of holes, obviously.

What a compelling heart-wrenching story. You feel the pain that Tania Head experienced. Her world fell apart on the morning of September 11, 2001, she almost lost her own life, and she did loose her beloved Dave, her husband/fiance. She recounts her horrific tale many times in this book, how could you survive all that she has lost?
You hear about the angel in the stair-well, with the red-bandana that helps save her life. She in turn helps fill in a void in his parents life, and brings them some feeling of satisfaction on hearing how he helped her. She becomes the head of the World Trade Center Survivor's Network, and she becomes a life line to so many in need. She leads the group in helping save the "Survivor's Stairway".
She becomes best friends with Linda Gormley, among others, and when she gets stressed, she treats them terribly. There are several others, that I was worried she was going to put them over the edge, and yet most just were in awe of her. In the end she is a total FAKE! So many people loved and trusted her! Tania actually has a gift of drawing people toward her.
This book will linger with you long long after you have turned the last page. You will wonder how someone could live with themselves faking such an unimaginable horror.

I received this book from the Publisher Touchstone, and was not required to give a positive review.

I was about to give this book 3 stars until I realized it wasn't the writing I didn't like--- it was the woman in the book. The writing is worth 4 stars. The woman needs, needs? Needs everything, a spanking, a psychiatrist, a man, a year in jail, an intervention, a reality check. She doesn't need gall. There were so many victims from 9/11 and now she's left those victims victimized all over again. Conning runs in her family evidently, her father and brother spent time in a Spanish prison for fraud. Shame on her.

I don't think a book has made me so angry in my life. This woman took advantage of real survivors and victims, telling them that she was in the South tower on 9/11. Her story was SO vivid that nobody thought to question her until 6 years later. Somehow, she became the celebrity amongst the group and was constantly in the spotlight.
This book is well written and so detailed that you think that maybe she wasn't lying about everything. As time goes on, she becomes more and more suspicious. Things don't add up. She makes so much about herself and pulls others down with her. She didn't just blatantly lie to the survivors of 9/11 but to the mayor, numerous tourists, AND survivors of the Oklahoma city bombing. I was in total shock and can't understand why she kept intentionally digging her grave deeper and deeper.
Even after solid proof that she wasn't there, she refused to give in. This woman is a piece of work and completely despicable for doing this to real survivors. Absolutely disgusting.

Wow, I literally devoured this book in an afternoon. An amazing true story about Tania Head, a woman who said she was on the 78th floor sky lobby in the South Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11 when it was struck literally head on by one of the hijacked planes. While she manages to extraordinarily survive, her fiance dies in the North tower. The book weaves her story from the genesis of her writings on online support groups for the forgotten victims of 9/11, the survivors. As Tania makes amazing headway for the survivors of 9/11 her tale begins to unravel until it all falls apart and the truth is revealed. You will feel all the feels when reading this. I went in knowing a bit about Tania Head, but I was still spellbound by how incredible and enraging her web of lies was. I would highly recommend this if you enjoy historical non-fiction, 9/11 history, and/or true stories of incredible deception.

This is a fascinating story, and in the hands of better writers it could have been a great book. Instead, it's a lumbering linear narrative which gets more tedious the longer it goes on. We know going into the book that Head was a fraud, but there's no insight into WHY Head needed to insert herself into the 9/11 tragedy, nor any investigation into the life she was actually leading while she hoodwinked everyone. If she wasn't working for Merrill Lynch as claimed, just what was she doing? Did she have a job? How did she afford a swank Manhattan apartment? She claimed to have gone to Sri Lanka to assist with rebuilding after the tsunami - did she? Unfortunately, none of these questions are answered or even addressed. At 304 pages, there's a lot of repetition and many over-dramatized dialogue sequences, as if the authors are stretching thin material into an acceptable length for a book.

I had forgotten about the 9/11 survivor who was actually in Spain at the time. This book tells her story as a third person narrative tracing Tania Head's life, tale of survival and her role in the survivor's network. It's only towards the end that the real Tania is revealed. I thought the only thing missing was a chapter on potential motives or analysis on why Tania needed to concoct and live such a fanciful lie for almost 6 years. Tania remains another example of the weirdness of humankind.

Unbelievable!! Incredible! What the??!!?? I couldn't put this book down.

Not knowing the background or having heard anything about the story, I was taken in and couldn't believe the ending, even knowing the title of the book!! The authors tell this tale so clearly.

It's the story of a woman, Tania Head, who claimed to be in the towers on 9/11, her harrowing rescue and will to survive, the loss of her husband in the other tower and her struggle to live afterwards. She builds a foundation for Survivors and an avenue for those affected to be listened to, comforted, and a big support. In the end, AFTER 5 YEARS, she is found to be a fraud, is kicked out of her network but is able to freely go about New York and back and forth from Spain without any repercussions. Inexcusable!

I am just floored by Tania's actions and by the response of some of those afterwards. I guess a bit more forgiving than I would be. When you mess with people's true experiences and emotions, that is a crime!! Granted, Tania did a lot of good for the Survivor's Network and got them recognized as other victims of 9/11 but she preyed on so many people's raw emotions. And was such a bully to those who really tried to love her and help her. She was a BULLY!! Honestly, I think she should be prosecuted for something!

She should also be given an Oscar for criminals. She well-played her part, did her research, and acted real well, faking all those around her with her emotions. Incredible!! I can understand how she wasn't caught for so many years. 9/11 is such a sensitive, raw subject. Who is going to doubt other's stories and emotions? But how she is free to go about and prey on another tragedy, is beyond me. She should be behind bars and if we can't prosecute her for something, she should at least be deported and never allowed back into the country!

This was a somewhat difficult book for me to read since I had worked in the World Trade Center and know people who died that day. I was not there on September 11th, but I counseled people who were - and largely because of my work with survivors, I was interested in this story.

I found it to be much better than the documentary. This book is riveting, and - though it covers a span of several years and contains a lot of details - it's a pretty fast read. There is no answer to the question of why Tania Head did what she did, but I didn't expect that there would be. It's not as simple as good vs evil and nothing is tied up with a pretty little bow. She is clearly a very complex person who had a very large impact on many survivors.

The other people are presented in a way that made me feel I knew them. My heart went out particularly to the long-suffering Linda, but also to the others who were fooled and taken in by Tania's deception. I loved the ending - I thought it was much more satisfying and fitting than the way the documentary ended.

For me, some of the descriptions were just a bit too familiar, so I had to stop and start this book several times. Because I could easily imagine the inside of the World Trade Center offices and surrounding area, some of the visuals were hard and I needed to take a break. I do not believe it's too graphic or disturbing, though. I really think that most readers will find it interesting and well worth their time. It's a fascinating story about an interesting, clearly psychologically-damaged woman as well as the struggles of men and women who woke up on September 11th not knowing that their lives would be changed forever.

A whirlwind story of Tania Head, who spear-headed many groups to support survivor 9/11 groups, an unrepresented and unacknowledged segment affected by that tragedy. She was charismatic and lead traumatized people to seek help and support from each other; the dark side of this story is that after 6 years it was discovered that her involvement in 9/11 had been a complete masquerade.

I felt that the book was extremely well-written from a chronological perspective, and descriptive and detailed with actual events and people as the story unfolded.

Unfortunately, I felt that the tale was found wanting in the psychological perspective, which would have given the individual who everyone had known as Tania Head a greater understanding of why such an individual might go to such great lengths to perpetuate such an illusion. Some journalistic facts were supplied, but they were insufficiently rounded out by some expert illumination into such a personality profile. Reference was made hastily to the fact that she " was certain to do this again to someone else". Even if these might be suppositions, the addition of some experts on Tania's personality and behaviour would have added a dimension to the story which it, I believe, needs.

However, it is a heartfelt tale and shocking in that the woman who inspired those in need was such a charlatan.

I was disappointed that most of the book details her lies, delusions, manipulations and fabrications, and only one chapter tells you the truth about the woman. I wanted to understand better who she is, and why she did it, as well as how she could get away with it for so long. It needed an extra chapter at the end to explain that.

Complete fraud.

Two years after the attacks of 9/11, a survivor named Tania Head started posting to survivor's forums online. She was one of only 19 people who had been above the point of impact in the South Tower of the World Trade Center and survived. Her remarkable story of escape -- her arm nearly torn off, her assistant decapitated, the fireman who led her to safety as the tower collapsed, her days of unconsciousness in a New York City burn unit -- was made all the more heartrending by the fact that her husband died in the North Tower.

In a short period of time, her forceful, magnetic personality, combined with her amazing story, made her the face -- and the heart -- of the survivors' network. She helped found and became the beloved president of the World Trade Center Survivors' Network and lobbied successfully to have the 9/11 survivors recognized on par with rescue workers and the victims' families. She gave tours of Ground Zero to visitors and dignitaries such as Rudy Guiliani and Eliot Spitzer. She was instrumental in the saving of the "survivors' staircase," which had been slated for demolition. She got the survivors admitted to the official anniversary ceremonies.

In time, though, discrepancies in her stories started to be noticed. She grew increasingly paranoid and wary of the press and started to have something of a split personality, being unimaginably cruel at times to other survivors -- people who were supposed to be her best friends. Eventually her story was entirely discredited, and in September 2007 the New York Times revealed her to be a true fraud -- she had not even been in the United States on the date of the attacks, and not a single part of her story was true.

I know a couple of people who I believe to be pathological liars, and as bizarre as their fabrications are, this blows them out of the water. Perhaps the strangest part of the story is that Tania Head made no money off of her deception -- her motivation has never become known, but she received no monetary benefit (and, in fact, spent sums of her own money on the survivors' cause) and collected only acclaim, concern, and love.

I couldn't put this book down. The first part of it goes into Tania's (fabricated) story in great detail. The reader knows from the beginning -- from the title and the information on the book flap -- that none of it is true, which makes it even more compelling. The amount of research about the attacks that Tania must have done in order to concoct her story had to have been astounding. By the time I reached the end, I couldn't decide whether I should be angry, sad, disgusted, or some combination of all of the above. What would ever lead someone to do something like this? Did she do it out of cruelty to the true survivors? Was her own life so sad and meaningless that this was the only way she could feel loved and appreciated? Mostly, though, I felt betrayed right along with the real survivors.

Although it’s carried by an extremely unique premise, I think this story ultimately should’ve been kept as a magazine feature or short documentary. There just isn’t enough payoff to justify forcing the reader to suffer through nearly 300 pages of Tania’s psycho behavior.

In fact, there really isn’t any payoff at all. The first 250 pages are just various accounts of Tania creating a cult-like following (certainly a fascinating tale of how dangerous those personalities can be) until the very brief reveal which leaves you wondering who Tania Head actually is.

Usually with stories like these you expect a third act which explains what really was happening, either through a deeper character analysis or some sort of psychological conversation. But the reader is given nothing of the sort here, and is instead only offered a bewildering finish with almost no answers.

I listened to the Mars Hill podcast last year which studied a similarly charming yet toxic cult of personality built by Mark Driscoll. I thought Christianity Today did a wonderful job of studying not just the way in which Mark was able to deceive thousands in his congregation, but also the broader dangers and lessons found in such tales of deception.

With the Mars Hill podcast, there was plenty of discussion around how we as humans are susceptible to dangerous personalities such as Mark and Tania. But this book simply ends with a message of “Yeah, Tania was kind of crazy and lied about it all and the survivors never got any closure.”

It’s a very unsatisfying conclusion to a truly boggling story.

I found this to be a very bizarre book. Not bad, but not at all what I was expecting given the title and the promotion around it. What I expected was a story, from the journalists' point of view from beginning to end, about the unmasking of a faker who for years had pretended to be a 9/11 survivor: a depiction of exactly what they did to uncover her deceptions, descriptions by her one-time friends how it felt to be betrayed by her, philosophical discussion about whether she was a typical "con man" or whether she had actually convinced herself of her lies. Most (though not all) of that was there eventually, but it didn't even start until the very final 20% of the book.

Before that, what you got was the faker's fake story, mostly told from her point of view, as if it had really happened. I suppose the intention was to give the eventual deception all the more impact, but since no one reads a book entitled "The Woman Who Wasn't There: The True Story of an Incredible Deception" without knowing about the existence of the deception, it seemed like a very strange narrative choice.

Still worth reading, though, if that's your thing, and I don't regret buying it. I just wish I could have learned more of the details of the unmasking rather than having most of it glossed over and crammed into the last few chapters. I'm interested in the stories of 9/11 survivors too, but it's the unmasking of a faker that really intrigued me enough to read the book in the first place.

Wow, this was one roller coaster of a read and compelling narrative nonfiction! My first thought when I finished this fascinating story was "give this woman an academy award!" as she was very convincing as someone who had undergone a horrendous experience, and how she kept it up for over five years is pretty amazing.

The lack of one star is because I was disappointed that there wasn't more about who Tania really is or exactly what she was doing on September 11, 2001 (this was the compelling part that kept me reading), but then I suppose no one really knows for sure. Also, at times it was a little too detailed and repetitive and agreed with another reviewer who said this could have easily been covered in a Vanity Fair magazine article (or, I’m thinking it would have been a terrific Rolling Stone article—or maybe it was, I haven’t checked).

But the part that's hard for me to wrap my head around (and makes this discussable for book groups) is that even though what she did was pretty heinous and morally wrong, the fact remains that through her tireless work Tania did make gains in getting survivors of the tragedy recognized, and for me that makes it difficult to hate her for what she did. I would have liked to have read more of what those who worked with her thought as I can only imagine their conflicting emotions.

I am now interesting in seeing the documentary that aired in April 2012 and am trying to figure out where I can see it.

Interesting story about a woman who successfully faked being a survivor of 9/11 for 5 years. Excellent depiction about the rise of the survivor movement generally after the tragedy had occurred, and I found the story of "the woman" to be quite fascinating, because I couldn't believe that she was able to perpetrate the hoax for so long.

My only criticism of the book is that we didn't get to know "why" she did it. Was it a result of self-narcissm? Well, sure, but I was really hoping that there would be more context about her motives than that. I can't blame the authors, who didn't speculate what those motives could have been since they had no facts to answer the question; however, it does weaken the ending of the book a little bit.

The way that this book was structured REALLY bothered me and the parts that I was the most interested in were at the end and not long enough. Still, it's an almost unbelievable account of an ordinary woman who became the face of 9/11 survivors but was never there and her entire story was fake. That in itself kept me reading.

3.5. Crazy fast read and a nutso story. I did wish I got more of a "what happened after she was found out" - the reveal didn't happen until 90% into the book. Mostly I just wanted MORE, but it was a real propulsive read where you are constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Such a sad story on so many levels. Well researched and written with compassion for all those who perished, responded, and yes, those who survived. We must never forget.

Huh.

This was a strangely written book. It is known, from the title and the blurb, that it is about a woman, Tania, who claimed to have been in the World Trade Centre on Sept 11, 2001 on a floor above the point of impact of the plane which crashed into it, who claimed her husband/fiance in the other tower died and yet she survived and went on to build a strong survivors' network, speaking to organisations etc about her experiences and yet she isn't who she claimed to be. Fine. I thought there would be something more to it than that - but there really wasn't.

In the book, the "big reveal" appeared to be that she wasn't where she said she was, along with various other fabrications - but, as readers, we knew this all along, more or less. There wasn't much more to it than that. There was no explanation of why she did what she did (understandably, I guess, since she was not co-operative in the writing of the book) or any experts who could shed any light on her actions.

I also felt it was written quite strangely. Considering it was not her experiences, it started out written in the third person and focussed on Tania. It described how she was curt with her "husband" when he rang her after they'd both got to their desks suggesting they meet for coffee downstairs, how she looked out at the other tower and the people jumping to their deaths, how she led her employees down several floors to try to catch an express lift down to ground level, how she looked at one of her employees next to her after the plane crashed into their building and saw she had been decapitated - and yet none of it was true. It may have been a valid way to write the story if we weren't already aware of that fact.

And then, toward the end of the book, the writing switched to first person in the voice of one of the authors (Robin Gaby Fisher or Angelo J Guglielmo) but without saying which author was actually speaking. Based on other references earlier and later in the book, it was Guglielmo, but I don't think the reader should have to work out who is speaking - it should be made clear!

It would have been interesting to find out more about Tania and why she may have acted the way she did. There was a little about this at the end, but not very much. It felt more like a postscript to the main story.

I'm still undecided as to whether I will give this 2★ or 3★. It was a quick read and I kind of enjoyed it, so I could give it 3★, but I was disappointed with the development of the story (or lack thereof) so I may still give it 2★.

Even though I watched the documentary before reading the book, The Woman Who Wasn’t There was still compelling and interesting to read. Mostly because no matter how many times you hear a story like this, you’ll never stop being shocked that it actually happened.

The idea of anybody pretending to be a 9/11 survivor isn’t far fetched. Some people demand more attention than others and will do anything to get it. But to pretend to be 9/11 survivor, head up a survivor’s network, invent a marriage with a man who actually died, and carry on for over 5 years? It seems too calculatingly evil to not be straight from Lifetime movie.

Learning about all of the things Tania did before it was revealed she was a fraud actually made me conflicted. Tania did amazing things for the survivor’s network. Former friends and members cited that she was the reason that they found the will to live again. Her best friend at the time, Linda, even said the Tania represented the presence of God on 9/11 to her. She honestly saved a lot of people.

On the other hand, Tania used her position as the queen of suffering to bully and manipulate the other members of the network and the people she considered her friends. She even edged out one of the founding members of the survivor’s network because she thought he was being too intrusive.

People like Tania make me raise this question: If a bad action results in a good outcome, was it really bad at all? Did Tania’s lying, determination, and narcissism, justify the means? I don’t have an answer.

Nowadays, a con like this wouldn’t fly. The internet is just too all knowing. Her husband, her job, her tale could be fact checked in about an afternoon. I’m also not surprised no one cared to question Tania until the very end. From outside the survivor’s network, to question someone who claimed to be a 9/11 survivor so soon after it happened was insane. No one would be so terrible. People couldn’t comprehend it. From inside of the survivor’s network, to question Tania meant cutting your lifeline to salvation. Tania was their God. If she wanted you gone, you were gone. Your support, your friends, they would side with Tania.

The only thing that bothered me about the book was that it didn’t delve very deeply into Tania the person. The book read more like a long article about what she did, rather than who she was and why she would do it. It was minor, but that would have sent this book over the top.

All in all, a great book about a crazy situation. Would highly recommend.

For those who missed it, here's a short clip about it. Notice the amount of cameras pointing at me. And notice who I’m giving the tour to: Pataki, Bloomberg, and Giuliani.
— Tania Head bragging about leading a Ground Zero tour in an email to true 9/11 survivors

Tania Head is a trauma vampire who used a fake story of survival to satiate her never-ending need for attention. I had already watched the documentary of the same name, so I knew the main details behind her lies. However, I didn't fully understand the cruelty and narcissism that feed them until I read this book.

Alicia "Tania" Esteve Head spent nearly half a decade telling the world how she escaped the 96th floor of the South Tower of the WTC, was saved by the man in the red bandanna, fulfilled a dying man's final wish to his wife and lost the love of her own life. She was interviewed by the media, hobnobbed with state and federal politicians and was given opportunities to speak on behalf of the survivor community at memorials, public events and even congressional hearings.

But, no part of her story was true. And while she didn't make any money off of her lies, she used her position as "The Most Tragic 9/11 Survivor" to bully and belittle other survivors, inflate her own ego and control those around her.

Both the book and the documentary try to be fair by sharing the good Tania did in her undeserved role as president of the World Trade Center Survivors' Network. Nevertheless, through interviews with those who knew her, her true personality — one of selfishness and deceit — shines through.

I do wish a bit more time was spent explaining who Alicia Head truly is. The book dropped hints that she has a history of pathological lying, but it only mentions one or two incidents. I also wished we had learned more about the aftermath of the survivors' group. These people had because been traumatized twice: first the attacks, then Alicia Head's vulture-like exploitation of them. I want to know how they're doing now. How have they recovered as a group? Do they have any final words for her?

Overall, the authors did a great job of showing what a confounding and disgusting person "Tania" was.