Viet Dinh

On January 26, 2000 an earthquake occurred in the area of Bhuj, India. It lasted for over 2 minutes and killed over 13,000 people and destroyed nearly a half million homes.

It seems like almost every month we read about some horrific natural or man-made disaster. We get video and pictures and statistics and maybe we contribute a few dollars to do our part while we marvel, briefly, at the selfless, heroic rescue workers. Then we turn the page.

Viet Dinh, in this excellent debut novel makes all show more the reportage real. We see and feel and smell the dead and injured and witness the incredible destruction. We get a real sense of the overwhelming challenge of trying to save lives in Hell.

The story is told through the eyes of Ted, a USAID worker, Dev, an Indian doctor and Andy, a young U.K fireman. The characters perform heroic deeds, but they are not superheroes. They are very real human beings and the reasons they do what they do are complicated. The three main characters also happen to be gay and their relationship to each other provides a through line for the novel.

This is a complicated story with lots of characters, flashbacks and other disaster locations. It is not easy to follow, but it is not confusing. The narrative in essence creates the fog of war. It is a little more difficult to read on a Kindle because I often had to return to earlier chapters to keep things straight.

Incredibly well researched, this is an important story and I highly recommend it. show less