shopping cart
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.

Related Aisles


Original Essays | June 27, 2009

All posts by Fran Cannon Slayton On Wakes and Rum (and Coke)

"Unfortunately, I've been to my fair share of wakes." Continue »


  1. $11.89 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    When the Whistle Blows

    Fran Cannon Slayton

Ships free on qualified orders.
$16.99
HARDCOVER, NEW
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
10 Local Warehouse Children's- Adventure Stories


The Killing Sea

by Richard Lewis

The Killing Sea Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Ruslan slipped away from the café and the curious onlookers. He began to run, not knowing exactly why, but instinct making him head away from the sea....

And in the distance, along the seafront of Ujung Karang, screams rose from a hundred, a thousand, mouths.

Aceh, Indonesia. December 2004.Ruslan, an Indonesian boy, and Sarah, an American girl, are brought together in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami. Ruslan is searching for his missing father, while Sarah is trying to get medical treatment for her sick brother. Together they travel through the destruction, barely believing all that they see.

The Killing Sea is a high-stakes survival story that puts a human face on a terrible tragedy. Richard Lewis, who lives in Indonesia, was there during the tsunami and worked as a relief worker in Aceh in the days and weeks following it. This novel is based on his firsthand experiences.

Review:

"Lewis (The Flame Tree) sets this rambling novel in northern Indonesia's Aceh, the first area hit by the 2004 tsunami. As the novel opens, 16-year-old Ruslan meets the Bedfords, an American family, when the engine on their sailboat breaks down and they seek out Ruslan's mechanic father in the small harbor town of Meulaboh. The author (who lives in Indonesia and volunteered as a tsunami relief worker in Aceh), provides a chilling description of the disaster that strikes Aceh the next day. Teen Sarah Bedford and her younger brother, Peter, become separated from their parents after being forced to abandon their boat. Meanwhile Ruslan watches villagers disappear under the raging water as he takes refuge on a rooftop and then embarks on a search for his father. Sarah discovers her mother's body and buries her with little emotion (in one of several soap-opera twists, readers later learn that the girl's lack of grief stems from the fact that she read, in the diary her mother kept when she was pregnant with Sarah, 'My resentment of this child within me borders on hate'). Ruslan leads the Bedford siblings on a danger-wrought yet curiously lumbering journey to a makeshift hospital, but there is no medicine available for a fever-ravaged Peter. The trio then returns to Meulaboh, where Ruslan is reunited with his father, and Peter gets the medical help he needs. Though Lewis includes ample realistic-sometimes jarringly graphic-detail, unlikely coincidences and overwrought writing ('Something swished its tail in his heart') significantly diminish the narrative's impact. Ages 12-up." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

From an author who has lived through the tsunami of 2004 comes the harrowing tale of two teens caught up in the disaster.

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
Mary Akers, January 10, 2007 (view all comments by Mary Akers)
I finished Richard Lewis's most recent YA novel The Killing Sea in two days. Really one and a half. I purchased it for my son but couldn't wait for him to get through a trilogy he is currently reading and so I picked up The Killing Sea and read it myself. Am I glad I did! It's a wonderful read and a real page turner.

Two protagonists move through the story: Ruslan, a local Indonesian boy who works at a small beachside cafe in the town of Meulaboh; and Sarah, a teenager sailing with her family through the Indonesian islands over the Christmas holiday. The two meet briefly when Sarah's family anchors their sailboat near the cafe, looking for a mechanic to fix their engine. Ruslan (whose mechanic father ultimately fixes the engine) is captivated by Sarah's blue eyes. A budding artist, he returns home later that night and draws her in his sketchbook (against the teachings of a local cleric who deems any image-making to be a form of idolatry). Sarah barely registers Ruslan's existence before stalking off to the sailboat when her mother insists she don a headscarf out of respect for the local culture.

Lewis sensitively and deftly explores the notion of the spoiled American as we see Sarah undergo her own sea change after the tsunami rips her world apart. Both Ruslan and Sarah are left parentless: Ruslan, motherless since birth, cannot find his father after the tsunami; Sarah's parents both disappear beneath the rising waters as they flee their stranded sailboat. She learns the fate of one shortly after the waters recede, the other she cannot find before she must leave to search for a hospital for her younger brother who inhaled seawater and is having difficulty breathing.

Ruslan and Sarah's paths intersect again, post-tsunami, as they struggle to survive against violent rebels, wild animals, contaminated water, blocked roads and mounting hunger. The trials they endure give the two teenagers a strong bond of survivorship that transcends gender, race, and religion. In their journey they are helped by a savvy feline named Surf Cat, a motley group of rebels who are strangely familiar, an unlikely crew of fellow survivors, and a number of cast-off items that are put to inventive good use.

The Killing Sea is a story born of the 2004 tsunami, yes (Lewis volunteered as an aid relief worker in the aftermath, and a portion of the proceeds from his book will go to support local relief organizations), but it is not only about the tragedy. It is also about an unlikely friendship that transcends ethnic and religious boundaries. The Killing Sea is an enduring, timeless story--a story of hope and survival, of human triumph against enormous odds.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(11 of 23 readers found this comment helpful)

Product Details

ISBN:
9781416911654
Author:
Lewis, Richard
Publisher:
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
Subject:
People & Places - Asia
Subject:
Americans
Subject:
Survival
Subject:
Social Issues - General
Subject:
Action & Adventure - Survival Stories
Subject:
Brothers and sisters
Subject:
Tsunamis
Copyright:
Publication Date:
December 2006
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
Young adult
Language:
English
Pages:
183
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.5 in
Age Level:
12-17

Other books you might like

  1. $38.25 New Library add to wish list
  2. $10.50 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  3. $1.95 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    Anne of Green Gables

    L. M. Montgomery
  4. $42.25 New Hardcover add to wish list
  5. $42.25 New Library Bound add to wish list
  6. $3.99 New Trade Paper add to wish list
  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.