Sonali Deraniyagala, author of Wave: A Memoir of Life After the Tsunami

October 7, 2014
An interview with Philip Lister

In her critically-acclaimed memoir, Professor Deraniyagala unflinchingly chronicles the aftermath of the day when the 2004 tsunami swept away her parents, husband and children. Dr. Lister will talk with her about the interweaving roles or remembering, writing and psychotherapy in her gradual emergence from this catastrophic and seemingly unsurvivable loss.

Sonali Deraniygala, PhD teaches in the economics department of SOAS, University of London, and the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.

Philip Lister, MD is on the faculty of the Weill-Cornell School of Medicine and the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

“The most exceptional book about grief I’ve ever read . . . I didn’t feel as if I was going to cry while reading Wave. I felt as if my heart might stop . . . Deraniyagala has fearlessly delivered on memoir’s greatest promise: to tell it like it is, no matter the cost. The result is an unforgettable book that isn’t only as unsparing as they come, but also defiantly flooded with light . . . Extraordinary.” –Cheryl Strayed, New York Times Book Review.

“This is possibly the most moving book I have ever read about grief, but it is also a very, very fine book about love.” — William Dalrymple, The Guardian (UK).