First published 2013
On December 26, 2004, Sonali Deraniyagala watches the Indian Ocean tsunami sweep away her parents, husband, and two young sons on Sri Lanka's southern coast. She alone survives. In the months that follow, she fights against accepting what happened. She cannot face the reality of her loss, yet cannot escape it. Slowly, over years, she allows herself to remember the life that was destroyed. Her memories move backward through time: her family's London home, her children's births, meeting her English husband at Cambridge, growing up in Colombo. Each recollection brings both pain and the possibility of keeping her loved ones present in some way. Deraniyagala must learn to balance the crushing weight of what she has lost against her need to honor and preserve the joy her family brought to her life. This memoir chronicles her struggle to survive not just the disaster itself, but the aftermath of unimaginable grief.
Genres: grief, autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: grief, loss, survival
Setting: Colombo, London, Sri Lanka
Period: 2004
232 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: death