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. ( )

A heartbreaking tale of unfathomable loss. Very well written. I could hardly believe, even nearly 14 years after the Sri Lankan tsunami, that the author could bear to write it. A deeply illuminating look at grief and recovery. ( )

Gave up reading half way. I was expecting a story primarily about the Tsunami of 2004. Instead, the tsunami was addressed in the first few chapters of the book and the rest is a memoir about grief and depression. Another reviewer mentioned that this book could have been about the aftermath of a car accident as well and I agree. I got bored and frustrated as the author clearly needed help and was not getting it. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )