Wave - Rilegato

Deraniyagala, Sonali

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 077102536X ISBN 13: 9780771025365

Casa editrice: McClelland & Stewart, 2013

Riassunto

 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.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

“This is the most powerful and haunting book I’ve read in years.... In A Whaler’s Dictionary there’s the line, ‘Ishmael’s impossible task is to write about a world that falls outside the realm of experience.’ And what Sonali Deraniyagala has done, in this beautifully written book, is to similarly give us a portrait of an event and its after-effects that we have never experienced or witnessed. At the same time she has brought back to life in this stunning memoir all those she lost, so much so that we will never forget them or their lives.”
—Michael Ondaatje
 
 “An amazing, beautiful book.”
—Joan Didion

 “Out of unimaginable loss comes an unimaginably powerful book. Wave is unflinching as it charts the depths of grief, but it’s also, miraculously, a beautifully detailed meditation on the essence of happiness. I came away from this stunning book with a new appreciation of life’s daily gifts. I urge you to read Wave. You will not be the same person after you’ve finished.”
—Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club

"In rinsed-clear language, she describes her ordeal, surreal rescue and deep shock, attaining a Didionesque clarity and power.  We hold tight to every exquisite sentence. . . . An indelible and unique story of loss and resolution written with breathtaking refinement and courage."
—Booklist
 
“Wave is a haunting chronicle of love and horrifying loss. The heartfelt writing manages to render the absence of the loved ones – the void, and the pain of it – in such a beautiful way that what was lost emerges as a new life form, one whose flesh and sinew are memory, sorrow, and undying love.” 
—Abraham Verghese, bestselling author of Cutting for Stone

"A devastating but ultimately redemptive memoir.... Deraniyagala's matter-of-fact account is all the more powerful for its lack of literary flourish, though the craft and control reflect an exceptional literary command.  Every word in these short, declarative sentences appears to have been chosen with great care, as if to sentimentalize the experience or magnify the horror (as if that were possible) would be a betrayal of all she has lost.... Excellent.  Reading her account proves almost as cathartic as writing it must have been."
—Kirkus (Starred Review)  

“Rarely are we given a story of such narrative force and poetic simplicity . . . Being spared, Deraniyagala seems doomed to spare herself nothing. Wave is a beautiful offering to readers. Bravissima.”
—Mary Karr

L'autore:

SONALI DERANIYAGALA teaches in the Department of Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She is currently a visiting research scholar at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York, working on aspects of post-disaster economic recovery. The author lives in New York.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: McClelland & Stewart
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• ISBN 10: 077102536X
• ISBN 13: 9780771025365
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 256