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  • Ghosts of the Tsunami

  • Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone
  • By: Richard Lloyd Parry
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (45 ratings)

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Ghosts of the Tsunami

By: Richard Lloyd Parry
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's Summary

Winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize 2018 

On 11 March 2011, a massive earthquake sent a 120-foot-high tsunami smashing into the coast of Northeast Japan. By the time the sea retreated, more than 18,000 people had been crushed, burned to death, or drowned. 

It was Japan's greatest single loss of life since the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. It set off a national crisis and the meltdown of a nuclear power plant. And even after the immediate emergency had abated, the trauma of the disaster continued to express itself in bizarre and mysterious ways. 

Richard Lloyd Parry, an award-winning foreign correspondent, lived through the earthquake in Tokyo and spent six years reporting from the disaster zone. There he encountered stories of ghosts and hauntings. He met a priest who performed exorcisms on people possessed by the spirits of the dead. And he found himself drawn back again and again to a village which had suffered the greatest loss of all, a community tormented by unbearable mysteries of its own. 

What really happened to the local children as they waited in the school playground in the moments before the tsunami? Why did their teachers not evacuate them to safety? And why was the unbearable truth being so stubbornly covered up? 

Ghosts of the Tsunami is a classic of literary nonfiction, a heartbreaking and intimate account of an epic tragedy told through the personal accounts of those who lived through it. It tells the story of how a nation faced a catastrophe and the bleak struggle to find consolation in the ruins. 

©2017 Richard Lloyd Parry (P)2017 Audible, Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about Ghosts of the Tsunami

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Entering an Unknown Reality

With the evocative title and historical nature of the content; this was a book that needed to be read/heard.

beautifully crafted and almost poetic in its form. this work takes you on a journey that is unimaginable.

the characterizations and beautifully crafted and evocative descriptions left me in awe.

the narration was by far one of my favourite to date. I was there and got to know these people and their grief and culture.

this is well laid out and will become historically important to anthropologists for many decades.

Nothing prepared ne for the emotion and the strength.

thank you.

Gary Denney, New Zealand

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Beautiful, informative, creepy.

Having been to Ishinomaki post Tsunami, I needed to do what I could to understand every minute of disaster not necessarily on a physical level but what it had done to the lives involved. I’m not a spiritual person really however my soul felt thick with grief and haunting of sadness when I went here, this book understands what and helps put it in to words. I think that if you like Japan or have visited Japan it is an absolutely necessity that you read this book.

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Heartbreaking and respectful

A hard to listen to account of the sadness that was the 2011 tsunami. This retelling of events is an absolute crushing read but vital to keep the story alive and to retell the tragedy of the lives lost with a good glimpse into tohoku mentality

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Very moving recount of tragedy.

I learnt so much about the aftermath and the bureaucracy of modern Japan. A sad moving account of the struggles of so many who survived and in some ways also didn't.

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Enlightening

Over the years, i have often thought about the victims of the tsunami and their stories and how the survivors have regained some semblance of a normal life. This beautifully narrated insight has indeed satisfied my curiosity. The plight of the Japanese during and after this tragic disaster will always now be part of my consciousness. A remarkable book!

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mesmerising

I was caught up the struggle to come to some acceptance of the lose

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Here thanks to tiktok

Very nice stories from all perspective. It’s not as scary as I thought it would be but still I cried so much

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Just wow!

As a listener who was also in Tokyo on March 11, Richard absolutely nailed the descriptions and emotions of such a sudden and tragic event.

I’m personally not a believer of ghosts and spirits, but the way Richard tells the story of each family - helps the western reader understand the spiritual link to the culture and tradition of Japanese people.

The stories are confronting, raw, and I feel privileged to have heard them in a way they should be told - by the families.

This is the first audio book that had me in tears during certain chapters. It is always hard to hear about tragic events involving children.

Overall an amazing book, with Richard taking us deep into the lives of survivors, victims, and the spirits left behind.

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