Sonali Deraniyagala was enjoying the day after Christmas 2004 surrounded by her family; her parents were in a nearby hotel room, her two young sons playing with new toys, her husband in the bathroom. Suddenly, they were running for their lives as the devastating tsunami of 2004 swept across the Sri Lankan landscape. Deraniyagala, awash in a whirlwind of water and mud, surfaced to find herself utterly, incredibly alone--her entire family wiped out.
Wave is the visceral, frank and gut-wrenching tale of the aftermath, as Deraniyagala struggles to cope with the emptiness and chaos that is her new reality. "For three years, I've tried to indelibly imprint 'they are dead' on my consciousness, afraid of slipping up and forgetting, of thinking they are alive," she writes. "Coming out of that lapse, however momentary, will be more harrowing than the constant knowing, surely." Afraid at first of the memories that will surface if she returns to their London home or revisits old haunts in Sri Lanka, the author drinks herself into oblivion each night. As the years pass, however, Deraniyagala notices that simple things like a certain angle of light or a sarong or the sound of a child's laugh allow her access to her memories without so much pain, enabling her to provide readers with an intimate look at the people she holds so dear. Wave is a potent, unforgettable testament to the extraordinary powers of love and grief. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer