During a special Skidompha Library Chats with Champions May 16, Boston Globe reporters and co-authors Jenna Russell and Scott Helman discussed their book “Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City's Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice.”

A day after a jury sentenced Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to death, Russell and Helman spoke with a group at Lincoln Theater about the days and weeks after the bombings, and what went into crafting a book so soon after the April 15, 2013 bombings.

Helman said shortly after the bombings took place, the pair went into high gear to try and capture, via written word, what had transpired in Boston.

“Of course with the marathon it was pretty apparent that it was a huge story and not just about Boston, or how it affected Boston, but it affected the world,” he said. “Shortly afterwards we got together and asked: 'Is this a story that we want to bring to light in book form?' We felt an obligation to tell the story in a bigger way.”

One of the problems with the quick turnaround was talking to people who were directly involved with the tragedy, and not long after it happened, Helman said. Within weeks, the pair began reaching out, looking for people who were there that day with a story to tell.

“As we started to talk about what kind of book would make the most sense, we wanted more than just a retelling of the horrible hours, horrible days, and not more 'tick-tock' of what happened, because most people already knew most of that, and that wouldn't be a very satisfying book,” he said.

So, the pair began looking for people with first hand perspective, shortly after the bombings.

Helman said special attention was given to certain people to help “stitch” the narrative together, and tell the story of the 2013 Marathon bombings.

“We set out here to make this book really about people, and through the narrative the individual stories tell you what it was like to go through not just that day, but that week, and the weeks afterward,” he said. “Ultimately we settled on five core characters who formed the center of the book. And we follow them through the week, and the weeks after afterwards.”

Those five stories include someone who was maimed in the attack, a bystander who lost her life during the bombings, a surgeon, the race director and a cop who was on the scene, Russell said.

“In June 2013 when we began thinking about how the book would take shape, we had an ideal vision of what we might be able to achieve,” she said. “And we both agreed it would be very important to tell the story of one survivor who was most deeply affected by the bombing.”

Russell said there were 17 people who would lose one or both legs as a result of the bombing, and that most were not ready to begin telling their story. So, Helma and Russell began writing letters to the victims explaining the type of book they had planned to write, until finally someone responded.

“We were very fortunate to connect with a young woman named Heather Abbott,” she said.

Abbott had just arrived on Boylston Street with a group of friends when she heard the first explosion. When she turned to look, the second bomb exploded, and Abbott was thrown through the door. She was rushed to hospital, and Russell said Abbott felt that she was one of the lucky ones.

It was actually Abbott's choice to have part of her leg amputated, after doctors told her she could either choose between keeping her foot and struggling with pain for the rest of her life, or resume a more normal life after an amputation.

Russell said the story followed Abbott as she continued to improve throughout the weeks and culminated with her throwing out the first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

The second person the book followed was Massachusetts General Hospital surgeon Dr. David King, whose story began after he completed running the marathon, Russell said.

“He ran the race that day, and ran pretty quickly — just over three hours,” she said. “He met up with his family and went back to Cambridge when he started getting text messages on his phone telling him that something had gone wrong. He rushed inside (his home), grabbed pair of scrubs and a banana, and immediately began operating.”

Both Helman and Russell said people kept waiting for the death toll to rise during the bombings, but because of the central location, which was near several large hospitals, no one else died from injuries sustained during the two blasts.

“Many of us kept waiting for it to happen, and I think that the location, the number of hospitals saved (a lot of people),” Russell said.

The next person the pair followed was someone who wasn't so fortunate.

Russell said they spoke with Krystle Campbell's family shortly after she died in the blasts and felt the need to include her in the narrative.

“We tried very much to find out who she was,” Russell said. “She was effervescent, charismatic, generous. She made quite an impact in the short time she had, and (it) was a very important core mission for us to try and tell her story.”

The two authors also spoke with Dave McGillivray, the race director of the Boston Marathon.

“We saw the race as being a character itself, at the heart of the story,” Russell said. “It's something that's very dear to the city and the region.

“In bringing (McGillivray) into the story we were able to go behind the scenes and show the complexity of putting it all together.”

Russell said a lot of the tale's raw emotion came from Boston Police Officer Shana Cottone, who had witnessed several terrorist attacks in her lifetime.

“Shana grew up in New York City and was a teenager when 9/11 happened and was very deeply affected by those events,” Russell said. “She told us that one of the reasons she fell in love with Boston was because she felt so safe here.”