Sonali Deraniyagala (born 1964) is a Sri Lankan memoirist and economist.[1] She serves as a lecturer in Economics at the SOAS South Asia Institute. She considers Joan Didion and Michael Ondaatje her favourite literary heroes.[2]
In 1990, she married economist Dr Stephen Lissenburgh (1964-2004), who "made large contributions to British public policy research".[9]
While on vacation at Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in December 2004, she lost her husband,[10] their two sons, her parents, her best friend, and her best friend's mother in the Indian Ocean tsunami.[11] The tsunami carried her two miles inland and she was able to survive by clinging to a tree branch.[12][13][14] She reportedly suffered unconsciousness and internal bleeding. Following the tsunami, she was taken to her aunt's house in Colombo. There, she stayed beneath the covers of her cousin’s bed, hoarding sleeping pills for comfort and solace; she attempted to stab herself with a butter knife and smashed her head on the sharp corner of the wooden headboard of the bed in reaction to the trauma of the tsunami.[15][16] She attempted to commit suicide and also began using alcohol in a bid to forget the tragedy.[17]
She went to New York at the end of 2006 to begin a new life after the trauma of the tsunami. Moving to New York, she chose a small apartment in Greenwich Village.[3] She was convinced by her therapist who suggested her to write down her painful memories to make her relax from the trauma.
She started dating the actress Fiona Shaw in 2018 after years of dating men only; the couple got married after Sonali proposed to her a few months later.[18][19][20]
Post the tsunami, Deraniyagala relocated to New York where she became a visiting research scholar at Columbia University. Her 2013 memoir, Wave, recounts her experiences in the tsunami and the progression of her grief in the ensuing years.[22][23] Sonali began writing her memoir Wave in 2010, where she describes her personal experiences in the aftermath of the tsunami and how she coped with it.[24][22] The book became an instant hit and much to Sonali's surprise, it became one of the most sought-after memoirs globally. It was shortlisted for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Autobiography)[25][26] and won the PEN Ackerley Prize 2013.[27] This book is currently used as a prose passage in the education system (O/Level) for English Literature in Sri Lanka.[28]
