Martin van Beynen

A competent journalistic account of survivors of the Christchurch earthquake of 2011. When we think of disasters we tend to think of the dead who were unlucky and the survivors who were lucky. This book reminds us that many of the "lucky" did not get away unscathed and many will bear the physical or mental scars for the rest of their lives. It also reminds us of the randomness of disaster and that there is no reasonable accounting for why one person lives when the person next to them on the bus or on the next table in a cafeteria dies or is permanently maimed. Each story is short, told with sympathy and allows the individuals personality to emerge. Sad but fascinating.
The kobo edition of the ebook has some odd formatting with certain phrases being repeated in italics without any obvious reasoning - I suspect missing photos.… (mais)