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dayoldtea's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Animal death and Infertility
mongert's review against another edition
4.0
I listened to the audio version, which was excellent, but which may not have been the best choice for this book (for me). I am not familiar with the Japanese language or with the geography, and I think seeing the names of people and places, and also maybe a map, would have helped my mind organize it better. I googled a few things during and after reading, which helped.
Parry is a journalist, who was living in Japan in 2011 when a large earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku occurred. One thing I didn't know was that earthquakes are very common in Japan, but this quake was the largest ever recorded in Japan and is now referred to as the Great East Japan Earthquake. After the quake, a tsunami demolished parts of the country. This book is the story of the tsunami and its aftermath.
Parry told this story in broad sweeps, with specific focus on a few things, such as the death of half the children and nearly all of the teachers at one elementary school, and of the people who became possessed with the dead's presence or who saw and/or spoke to the dead – the mediums that conveyed information from the dead to the living after the tsunami killed so many people.
Parry went into great detail about the school incident and how it impacted careers and relationships between families and people. The divide between those whose children survived and those whose didn't. Also, he goes into the lawsuit against the school for the terrible decisions that were made that day. I think this part of the story was the most poignant to me. It was so sad and the way people reacted to it was so understandable, but also, so very sad.
This was a harrowing book – one that really brought the details of destruction and the immense amount of grief home.
Parry is a journalist, who was living in Japan in 2011 when a large earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku occurred. One thing I didn't know was that earthquakes are very common in Japan, but this quake was the largest ever recorded in Japan and is now referred to as the Great East Japan Earthquake. After the quake, a tsunami demolished parts of the country. This book is the story of the tsunami and its aftermath.
Parry told this story in broad sweeps, with specific focus on a few things, such as the death of half the children and nearly all of the teachers at one elementary school, and of the people who became possessed with the dead's presence or who saw and/or spoke to the dead – the mediums that conveyed information from the dead to the living after the tsunami killed so many people.
Parry went into great detail about the school incident and how it impacted careers and relationships between families and people. The divide between those whose children survived and those whose didn't. Also, he goes into the lawsuit against the school for the terrible decisions that were made that day. I think this part of the story was the most poignant to me. It was so sad and the way people reacted to it was so understandable, but also, so very sad.
This was a harrowing book – one that really brought the details of destruction and the immense amount of grief home.
mollysticks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Wow, didn't know about much of this
lauradftba's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
mteast02's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
bmesimer88's review against another edition
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
emily_reads851's review against another edition
emotional
informative
medium-paced
3.5
not read a book like this before but it was very interesting to learn more about Japanese culture and also the effects the tsunami had on all the families and how surviving has its own negatives too.