Wave (Deraniyagala)

Wave
Sonali Deraniyagala, 2013
Knopf Doubleday
240 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307962690


Summary
On the morning of December 26, 2004, on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala lost her parents, her husband, and her two young sons in the tsunami that she miraculously survived.

In this brave and searingly frank memoir, she describes those first horrifying moments and her long journey since: how she struggled through the first months following the tragedy, furiously clenched against a reality that she cannot face and cannot deny.

Over the ensuing years, we follow Sonali as she emerges reluctantly, slowly allowing her memory to take her back through the rich and joyous life she mourns—from her family’s home in London, to the birth of her children, to the year she met her English husband at Cambridge, to her childhood in Colombo.

All the while Sonali must learn the difficult balance between the almost unbearable reminders of her loss and the need to keep her family, somehow, still alive within her. Wave is an engrossing, unsentimental, beautifully poised account of tragedy, survival, and healing. (Adapted from the publisher.)