Man who lost legs to Boston Marathon bomb meets Obama, writes memoir

Boston: Jeff Bauman became a symbol of a national tragedy after a photograph of him, legless and bloodied in a wheelchair at the scene of the Boston Marathon bombing, circled the world. Now he is turning into a symbol of resilience: learning to walk again, making a featured appearance at President Barack Obama`s State of the Union address, and writing a memoir.

Bauman, who lost both legs above the knee, was among U.S. first lady Michelle Obama`s guests at the State of the Union on Tuesday night, along with Carlos Arredondo, the man in the white cowboy hat who was helping Bauman in the iconic photograph. Bauman`s memoir, "Stronger," recounts the attack on April 15, 2013, and his recovery over the ensuing months, said Caitlin Mulrooney-Lyski, a spokeswoman for the publisher. The book was co-written by Bret Witter and will be released ahead of the one-year anniversary of the bombings. While writing the memoir, Bauman has also undergone several surgeries and devoted himself to physical therapy with the goal of walking on the one-year anniversary of the attack. He is "well on his way," the publishing house said. "He`s had a lot of help and amazing support from family, friends and Boston at large," said Mulrooney-Lyski, describing his story as inspirational. "He`s just looking to get back on his feet, literally." She said Bauman was not doing interviews. Bauman was standing at the marathon`s finish line, waiting for his girlfriend to finish the race, when he saw a man later identified as one of the attackers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, moments before the first of two bombs exploded, Grand Central Publishing said in a statement about the book. He also noticed the man had left behind a backpack, later found to contain one of two pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260. Bauman, who was 27 when the bomb exploded, remembered every detail when he awoke after two life-saving surgeries, the publisher said. The FBI brought in a sketch artist and they produced a drawing of the first suspect, who turned out to be Tsarnaev. Bauman appears on the cover of the memoir, standing with prosthetic legs and wearing black shorts and a t-shirt that reads, "Boston." The book will be released on April 8, a week before the first anniversary of the bombings. . Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed after a shootout with police days after the bombing, but his younger brother, Dzhokhar, is also a suspect and being held pending trial. The US Justice Department is expected to decide this week whether to seek the death penalty