Wave - Softcover

Deraniyagala, Sonali

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594137315 ISBN 13: 9781594137310

Publisher: Large Print Press, 2014

Synopsis

A poignant memoir of the author's experiences as a survivor of the 2004 tsunami that killed her parents, husband and two young sons recounts her struggles with profound grief and survivor's guilt and her gradual steps toward remembering the joyful times she shared with lost loved ones. (biography & autobiography).

About this title

Review:

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, March 2013: In an unblinking act of storytelling, Sonali Deraniyagala ruthlessly chronicles the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami that horrifically snatched from her all that mattered. Throughout this fierce and furious book, I kept wondering how someone who lost so much could write about it with such power, economy and grace. At first, she shrieks and grieves openly, angrily; for years she remains stunned and staggered, shamed by “the outlandish truth of me.” Then, slowly, she allows herself to remember, sharing vivid glimpses of her past. We see, hear, and smell two rowdy little boys, their brotherly scuffling, their muddy shoes and grass stains. By confronting and recreating moments that make us laugh and weep, we accept their absence and root for the author not to quit. Difficult to describe, tricky to recommend, this is a bold and wondrous book. In a wounded voice that manages to convey the snide, sarcastic, funny, and fatalistic personality that survives beneath the pain, Deraniyagala slowly pieces together the elements that represent the life--the lives--she lost. And she brings them back. For us, for her, for them. So brave, so beautiful, in these pages Deraniyagala’s family is brilliantly alive. And so is she. --Neal Thompson

About the Author:

SONALI DERANIYAGALA teaches in the Department of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She is currently a visiting research scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York, working on aspects of post-disaster economic recovery. The author lives in New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Large Print Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1594137315
• ISBN 13: 9781594137310
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 251