Facing the Wave ─ A Journey in the Wake of the Tsunami

From one of the preeminent and most admired observers of the natural world, a heartrending and inspirational portrait of Japan after the 2011 tsunami, when survivors found their world utterly transformed by loss, grief, destruction, and the urgent need to reconstruct their homes, their towns, and their lives.

A passionate student of Japanese poetry and art for much of her life, Gretel Ehrlich felt compelled to return to the earthquake- and tsunami-devastated Tohoku coast, to bear witness and listen to the survivors. In an eloquent narrative that blends reportage, poetic observation, and deeply felt reflection, she introduces us to fishermen, farmers, teachers, monks, outcasts, and an eighty-four-year-old geisha, who survived the wave to hand down a song that only she still remembered. Their harrowing and inspirational stories are set against a landscape both shattered and beautiful, with the ever-present specter of the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex that spews radiation into the fields and the fishing grounds. Facing the Wave is a testament to the resilience and humor of people who find strength in a suddenly shattered world.

Gretel Ehrlich is the author of This Cold Heaven, The Future of Ice, and The Solace of Open Spaces, among other works of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. She lives in Wyoming.