First published 2013
On December 26, 2004, a ten-meter tsunami crashes over Sri Lanka. Sonali Deraniyagala watches the massive wave destroy everything in its path. She survives, but her parents, husband, and two young sons do not. In the aftermath, Deraniyagala confronts an impossible question: does her shattered existence have any meaning left? She fights against accepting what happened with every fiber of her being. Rage, guilt, and bottomless grief consume her days. The reality feels too brutal to bear. Slowly, painstakingly, she begins to rebuild. She allows her memories to return piece by piece. Deraniyagala tells her story without ornament or sentiment. She uses stark language to capture her descent into despair and her gradual climb back toward something resembling life. This is her unvarnished account of surviving the unsurvivable.
Genres: grief, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, survival
Setting: Sri Lanka
Period: 2004
224 pages · Paperback · Nieuw Amsterdam
Content warnings: death