My October 18, 2022 book culture column for the San Francisco Chronicle:
Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Maria and now Ian — no longer just names, these monikers bring to mind devastating hurricanes. Disasters often referred to as “biblical,” a reference from Genesis: The flood followed rain that lasted 40 days and 40 nights. ¶ There is, of course, far more recent literature that describes the havoc that tsunamis, hurricanes and the ensuing floods wreak. The subject of “Wave” by Sonali Deraniyagala is the 2004 tsunami that killed nearly 230,000 people. Deraniyagala lost her mother, father, husband and two young sons.
