As I’m just finishing this book now, I have to admit that it is not what I thought it was going to be at first... and yet I am not disappointed. Unlike the happy-ending “The Impossible”, Sonali Deraniyagala’s heartbreaking memoir is a poignant account of the darkest aspect of this natural disaster. It is a haunting chronicle of loss as the author becomes parent less, childless and husband less in an instant. The author explores, the depths of her grief at having lost everyone she hold dear and every person that help define her as an individual, and also the depths of her guilt at having survived against all odds while they didn't. This memoir is also a touching tribute to the happiness those she lost brought her along the years she lived among them. It is a testimony of her undying love for her family as she reminisces the defining moments of her life that are associated to either her husband, her boys or her parents. A heartfelt chronicle written by a courageous woman who, event seven years after the event, keeps the memories of her loved ones alive and will continue to do so. For more on this book and others, visit my blog at : ladybugandotherbookworms.blogspot.com

Story Description: McClelland & Stewart|March 5, 2013|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-7710-2536-5 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 a tsunami that devastated coastlines through Southeast Asia. When the water began to encroach closer to their hotel, they began t 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 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. My Review: I’m finding it a bit difficult to write this review as on the one hand the story itself was a huge letdown and not at all what I expected for all the hype I’d heard. On the other hand, it was an amazing novel of the telling of immense grief Sonali went through in coping to learn to live without her entire family. I expected the story to be more of a telling of not only her own family and the tragedy she faced in losing everyone but also I expected some other stories of other people she met along with way and what their stories entailed in this unbelievably sad day in the life of so, so many people. I found the book to be quite repetitive in a lot of places and kept waiting for something “new” which never really materialized. It is said that some 226,000 people lost their lives that day and that is a staggering number for sure. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to lose my husband, my children, my parents, and my friends all within the blink of an eye and how finding your way back from that would feel like. Survivor’s guilt for sure enters into this tragedy and one wonders how anyone could have survived what Sonali did that particular day. However, I just felt the story was lacking ‘something’, I expected more substance and although I understand it is a “memoir”, I still expected to hear more details, figures, numbers, and stories of other people she encountered on her journey to redemption and acceptance. I just felt the book didn’t live up to the hype and I’ve not totally convinced myself that I would bother recommending this to other people, at least not without a warning that it wasn’t what I had expected from this much talked about memoir.

The chaos of losing ones loved ones in a split second is the backbone of a novel that attempts to come to terms with the 2004 tsunami, and Deraniyagala's heartbreaking reality of life as a mother with no children. Deraniyagala vividly recounts the years immediately following the tsunami in all their chaotic glory - the anger, fear, grief, loneliness and unwillingness to feel joy, that comes when a loved one leaves us. Written in a sort of stream-of-consciousness style, the story comes together in a way that suggest the author is reliving the experience as she is writing. Worthy of the Indigo spotlight, this novel tugs at your heartstrings as you are taken on a journey of grief, destruction, discovery and ultimately, acceptance.

Everyone was affected by the 2004 tsunami in one small way or another, but almost definitely nothing close to how it affected Sonali Deraniyagala. She survived the catastrophe, but lost her two sons, her husband, and her parents. The life she had and wanted to hold on to was wiped clean. "Wave" is her account of the tragedy that had befallen on her and her loved ones, and with dealing with the void in her life once the waves subsided. Sonali wastes no time in going straight to when the tsunami first hits Yala, Sri Lanka, where her family was spending their Christmas holiday. Within the first few pages, her family is swept and dispersed by the wave, right before they were due to leave Yala, without a proper farewell. To lose them in such fashion is especially tough because of how sudden and unexpected it came about, and this lack of a closure was what led Sonali to spiral out of control in the early months and years after the tsunami. She writes further of her heartaches, her difficulties, her lowest points, her reminiscing the past, in the 8 years since that fateful day. The subject matter is heavy-hearted and solemn, and it bears down on the reader with the knowing fact that she will never see or hear her loved ones again, or that she has and will not see her kids grow up to the people they would have been. In the beginning, her sentences were terse and short, interspersed with lots of rhetorical questions that I, unfortunately, felt make it hard to understand her flow of thoughts. But the content of it makes it so hard to pass off and I could only keep reading about the events that unfold. As it goes beyond the tsunami, Sonali better articulates herself. I realized her words in the beginning only reflected the sadness, the pain, and the confusion, of having to recount the experience without wanting to dwell on it too long because of how tremendously hard it is. The rhetorics sprouted from the whys and the what ifs. "Wave" then becomes a more intimate read in the second half of the book as she gains more semblances to her own self, never returning to that past self, because, how could she? She writes freely of memories of the ones she lost jolted back to her by the simplest of things, and of how she tried evading her past for as long as she could but comes to a few important realizations of her own. I too came to a realization. "Wave" isn't a memoir by Sonali Deraniyagala about her life after the tsunami, it's a very personal tribute in memory of her sons, her husband, and her parents, all of whom she devotes time and space in the book memorializing. It was probably cathartic for her to write and think of them more outwardly, instead of freezing her emotions. It likely helped her more in coming to terms with her loss and her grief, and in emerging stronger with them in her heart and mind. She did herself a favour in sharing them through "Wave," and in the process, does us a favour.

There really aren't any words that will do justice to the experience of reading this book. Deraniyagala shows how unique the experience of grieving is for each person - this book is written eight years after the tsunami in Sri Lanka that tragically took away her family, a large amount of time compared to what seems to be the trend in today's culture of sharing personal experiences on television in front of the world what seems like immediately after a traumatic event. I didn't cry while reading this book, but I could not lift the heavy feeling from my chest as I moved through each chapter. A truly heartbreaking read.