FACING THE WAVE A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami

Shortly after the three disasters of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in March 2011, Gretel Ehrlich visited the Tohoku coast in Japan to survey the damage and interview survivors. Sumalee Montano's narration is heartbreaking, understated, and even poetic. It perfectly captures Ehrlich's grave but surprisingly optimistic storytelling. Montano rolls through the many Japanese names of people and places with authenticity. She renders the dignity and tragedy of victims, including an 84-year-old geisha carried to higher ground on the back of a younger man, those who rescued abandoned pets from radioactive towns, fishermen unable to accept government instruction to move away from the coast to grow vegetables, and the Fukushima 50, who remained to decommission the stricken power plant. Ehrlich is most impressed by the Japanese acceptance of impermanence and communal responsibility. A.B. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2014]