Wave : A Memoir

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 she miraculously survived. In this brave and searingly frank memoir, she describes those first horrifying moments and her long journey since. She has written an engrossing, unsentimental, beautifully poised account: as she struggles through the first months following the tragedy, furiously clenched against a reality that she cannot face and cannot deny; and then, over the ensuing years, as she emerges reluctantly, slowly allowing her memory to take her back through the rich and joyous life she's mourning, 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 learning the difficult balance between the almost unbearable reminders of her loss and the need to keep her family, somehow, still alive within her.--Publisher description. A Brave, Intimate, Beautifully Crafted Memoir By A Survivor Of The Tsunami That Struck The Sri Lankan Coast In 2004 And Took Her Entire Family. On December 26, Boxing Day, Sonali Deraniyagala, Her English Husband, Her Parents, Her Two Young Sons, And A Close Friend Were Ending Christmas Vacation At The Seaside Resort Of Yala On The South Coast Of Sri Lanka When A Wave Suddenly Overtook Them. She Was Only To Learn Later That This Was A Tsunami That Devastated Coastlines Through Southeast Asia. When The Water Began To Encroach Closer To Their Hotel, They Began To Run, But In An Instant, Water Engulfed Them, Sonali Was Separated From Her Family, And All Was Lost. Sonali Deraniyagala Has Written An Extraordinarily Honest, Utterly Engrossing Account Of The Surreal Tragedy Of A Devastating Event That All At Once Ended Her Life As She Knew It And Her Journey Since In Search Of Understanding And Redemption. It Is Also A Remarkable Portrait Of A Young Family's Life And What Came Before, With All The Small Moments And Larger Dreams That Suddenly And Irrevocably Ended. NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • One woman's searing account of losing her entire family in a tsunami. “The most exceptional book about grief I’ve ever read.... As unsparing as they come, but also defiantly flooded with light.... Extraordinary.” —Cheryl Strayed, The New York Times Book Review In 2004, at a beach resort on the coast of Sri Lanka, Sonali Deraniyagala and her family—parents, husband, sons—were swept away by a tsunami. Only Sonali survived to tell their tale. This is her account of the nearly incomprehensible event and its aftermath.