Sonali Deraniyagala
Sonali Deraniyagala is a Sri Lankan economist and memoirist who survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that claimed the lives of her husband, two sons, and parents.
Born in Colombo, she studied economics at Oxford and Cambridge.
After the tragedy, Deraniyagala relocated to New York and became a visiting research scholar at Columbia University.
Her memoir, Wave, published in 2013, chronicles her experience of the tsunami and her subsequent journey through grief.
The book received critical acclaim and was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, establishing Deraniyagala as a powerful voice in contemporary literature.
