The Killing Sea [Hardcover]

Richard Lewis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–10—Ruslan falls for Sarah when her family's sailboat docks in his Indonesian town for mechanical assistance, but Sarah, a self-absorbed American, fails to notice him. Both teens are then caught in the disastrous 2004 tsunami. Sarah makes it to safety, but her mother is killed and her father is missing, leaving her to care for her younger brother. Ruslan also survives and immediately begins to search for his father, who had left their coastal home before the storm. The two meet again, this time forging a relationship. The action never slows, though some dangerous encounters seem unnecessary. Other predicaments are resolved too easily. For example, when Sarah is stranded on an island without a knife, she conveniently finds a boat and machete. Too many conflicts-death, romance, Sarah's anger toward her mother, Ruslan's relationship with relatives who are rebel fighters-muddle the plot. To his credit, the author treats cultural differences with a gentle and honest touch. He also creates a vivid picture of the many horrors and challenges faced in the immediate aftermath of a large-scale natural disaster. Despite drawbacks, this book will appeal to fans of survival adventures like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet (Macmillan, 1986).—Jayne Damron, Farmington Community Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Drawing from his own experience as a rescue worker, Lewis creates a powerful fictional tale of survival and cooperation in the wake of the 2004 tsunami that killed nearly a quarter of a million people and devastated much of the Southeast Asian coastline. Set on the western coast of Sumatra where the waves first hit land, the story centers on Ruslan, a local teenager searching corpse-strewn ruins for his father, and Sarah, a young American tourist desperately seeking medical help for her little brother. Falling in with a small group of other survivors, the three young people wander through shattered villages, seeing bodies dumped into hastily dug mass graves and people fired upon as suspected rebels, but also witnessing much kindness (except at the end, when, rescued at last, they are set upon by avid journalists and other Ugly Americans). Although many of Lewis' descriptions are horrifyingly vivid, Ruslan's resilience and Sarah's emotional numbness will give readers some shielding. An afterword is appended. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers; First Edition edition (December 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416911650
• ISBN-13: 978-1416911654
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born, raised, and live in Indonesia. No tv as a kid, read lots of books. Wrote my first short story at 6 about a yawn that traveled around the world. University educated in the States; bailed out of a marine geology PhD program due to technical difficulties with my soul, which did not want to be shackled to a career.

Most of my creative time was subsequently spent searching the archipelago for surf, only writing now and again, major accomplishment being a 2nd place finish in one of the AsiaWeek's short story contests. Now I'm writing full time, and, to the horror of my old surfing buddies, take more pleasure in turning an original phrase than in getting tubed.

In addition to several e-zine and print publications, I've done well in several prestigious contests, which I mention because my 3rd place in the Writer's Digest 2001 Short Story Contest (the story was published in an anthology) led directly to me getting an agent. So if you are wondering whether contests are worth it or not, I certainly would say yes. Agents do keep an eye out.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended for ALL readers, January 30, 2007

By 

Ellen Meister (NY, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Killing Sea (Hardcover)

So glad I'm not alone in giving this wonderful book 5 stars! It a small masterpiece.

Other reviewers have already done a great job of summarizing the plot, so I'll just say that this gripping young adult novel about the tsunami is so much more than a heart-thumping page-turner. It's about family, culture, religion, redemption, love and God. I'm eager for my children to read it, and recommend it to all adults, as well.

-Ellen Meister, author of Secret Confessions of the Applewood PTA

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless story of survival, January 8, 2007

By 

Mary Akers (Western NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Killing Sea (Hardcover)

I purchased The Killing Sea for my son but couldn't wait for him to get through a trilogy he is currently reading and so 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 this story: Ruslan, a local Indonesian boy who works at a small beachside cafe in the town of Meulaboh; and Sarah, a teenager who is 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, searching 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, Ruslan 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). At the cafe, 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 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 embark on a 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 the two teens struggle to survive against violent rebels, wild animals, contaminated water, blocked roads and mounting hunger. The trials they endure give the 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. It is an enduring, timeless story--a story of hope and survival, of human triumph against enormous odds.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fast-Paced Human Adventure Played Out Against a Monumental Disaster, January 22, 2007

By 

William R. Hamilton (Choroní, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Killing Sea (Hardcover)

More than any footage I saw, more than any news articles I read, this book made me feel what it was like to go through the great Indonesian tsumami with its devastating human cost. But this book is much more. It's also a high stakes adventure story.

Richard Lewis has taken an unimaginably immense, cataclysmic event and brought it down to the human scale, so that adult and young adult readers can feel the pain and witness the resourceful human spirit in action. This novel has no dull moments. From the momentous tsunami itself to the great labor of survival after it, he makes you identify with Sarah and the great change she goes through, lets you see this world clearly through the artist eyes of Ruslan, and has you care about their long and difficult journey. Sarah, the spoiled American teenager, like Kipling's rich boy in Captains Courageous, is forever changed and deepened by this tragedy in a world so foreign to her and to most American readers. Read it, then give it to a young person you care about. Neither of you will be disappointed.