We see the destruction, the dead bodies, the lost souls separated from loved ones, the inconsolable grief that settled on the island.

Lewis doesn’t revel in the death and destruction that followed the tsunami and his descriptions are not gore for gore’s sake, but he also doesn’t shy away from the macabre reality. The gut wrenching part is having to follow along with Ruslan after his miraculous survival of the initial impact. What makes the story a compelling one is the nature of the event and the skill with which Lewis captures those events along with the feelings and emotions of the characters. They travel together until events again force them to part. The tsunami strikes sending Ruslan and Sarah on their harrowing adventure and causing their paths to cross.

Perhaps not surprisingly given its label as a “young adult” novel, The Killing Sea is a rather simple story. The story follows them from the day of the tsunami up to the point where rescue workers arrive and the media descends in mass on the area. In trying to get medical treatment for her sick brother, Sarah meets up with Ruslan and they decide to travel together. The Killing Sea focuses on two teenagers caught up in the tragedy: Ruslan, an Indonesian boy searching for his missing father, and Sarah, an American – at least according to the book flap – girl whose family vacation ends up being in the path of the devastation. Lewis manages to give us both a gut wrenching reminder of the pain and suffering as well as a poignant story of friendship and loyalty. But he doesn’t leave it there, he also reminds us of the courage and the generosity that flowed into the region as the water receded. In his latest book, The Killing Sea, Richard Lewis reminds us of the devastation that struck the region that day two years ago and the horror that transpired in its wake. His first book, The Flame Tree, was also set in Indonesia and is “a remarkable look at religious conflict and personal relations in a post 9/11 world.” Lewis was born and raised in Bali, Indonesia as the son of American missionaries. Richard Lewis knows this as well because he lives in the area and volunteered in Aceh after the tsunami.

But as the people of Mississippi and Louisiana know all too well, you don’t just recover from events like this in a few weeks or months. In a world where disaster seems to be a daily occurrence, where war is constant companion, the Indonesian tsunami of 2004 is a distant memory for most of us.

The Killing Sea by Richard Lewis