Sonali Deraniyagala

Sonya Deraniyagala endured the unthinkable for a wife, mother, and daughter. She saw her loved ones disappear, literally, before her eyes, in the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami. To have turned that experience into an enduring work of inspiration is one thing. To have turned it into an enduring work of art is quite another. I won't spoil for the reader how she survives the grief. You'll have to read the book to find that out. But I can say that her powers of description of the life she knew in England and holidays in Sri Lanka are outstanding prose. The only comparable contemporary work I can think of is I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish, who lost his daughters and a neice in an attack by an Israeli tank during the Gaza War. I was particularly pleased to read in the ackowledgements the support the author received from one her more famous countrymen, author Michael Ondaatje, and his wife Linda Spalding, two longtime aquaintances of mine and really nice people. I also think of the great contribution Doubleday editor Anne Collins made to Shake Hands With the Devil by Romeo Dallaire. Great works of artists sometimes need a little help from their friends.… (altro)

Definitely not what I thought it was going to be like, but pretty good still. It dealt with the aftermath of the tsunami and the gut wrenching process which would follow if you lost your parents and entire immediate family, including children. You can tell how much she is pain and then you can even feel her getting better, with new obstacles now. The comments about the book on the back and front made it seem it was one of the best books of the year. I don't know about that but its worth reading for sure.… (altro)