Book of the month 2007

© S. Fischer

26th December 2004, 7:58am. An underwater earthquake and resulting tsunami hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This enormous tidal wave took the lives of nearly 230 thousand people from the Bay of Bengal, the Andaman Sea, Southeast Asia, and even East Africa. For many months the devastating effects of the tsunami were shown accross the media, but the long-term damage still needs to be dealt with for a considerable time to come. This tsunami is one of the century's worst disasters.

At the same time the Austrian writer Josef Haslinger and his family were spending the Christmas holidays on the island of Phi Phi in Thailand. Haslinger, his wife and his two children, Sophie and Elias, both eighteen, survived the natural disaster.
“we survivors of koh phi phi island were a select few. in our hotel the chances of surival were fifty fifty. but the last judgement does not have a sense of justice. we came here as a family of four and we left as four”.

For a long time Haslinger could not decide whether to describe his experiences.
“my memory of the tidal wave was like a barricade, which was placed in front of me, even though I wanted to leave the memory behind me. but there did not seem to be a way around it.”

Haslinger and his wife returned to Phi Phi in December 2005. Not much of the paradise that they had experienced before had stayed intact. The wildlife on the island was substantially destroyed by the tsunami and many hotels have yet to be rebuilt. Those who survived the catastrophe will remain changed for ever, but strive – despite the fate they have suffered – for normality in everyday life. Not only did they lose their possessions, but in many cases the water also took their family members from them.

The images of this catastrophe, that the writer had earlier subconsciously rejected, are now gaining intensity, and he eventually begins to write down these memories, from which ‘phi phi island. a report’ evolved.
"and there I saw water flowing behind all the people that ran past us. not even knee-high (…), but the people ran so fast, as if there was some other threat. the look of fear in their eyes."
These are the first seconds of the catastrophe as described by the writer. The whole family follows the running masses in the hope of getting away from the rising water. A few moments later Josef Haslinger is dragged under the water, which is already full of the possessions of the islanders.
"this is the end. and the realization came as a shock, but was not followed by despair. it was more a kind of regret, they i should not be allowed to die any other way, but here in this mess."
After he remerged from the water came the worry about his children, as he had not seen them or his wife for a while. But the Haslingers were lucky, as all four survived to return to Vienna.

In the book everything is written in small letters. This is because Haslinger suffered an injury to his little finger during the tsunami which resulted in his inability to use the shift key on the keyboard. He calls this his ‘modest personal contribution to the german spelling reform’.

Josef Haslinger has succeeded in writing a reliable eyewitness account, making it more exciting than most novels, which describe disaster.
The writer was nominated in the non-fiction category at the Leipzig Book Fair in 2007 for ‘phi phi – a report’

MN

Bibliographic Details
German	English Translation
Hardcover: Haslinger, Josef: phi phi island. a report. S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt, 2007 ISBN 978-3-10-030059-1 EUR 17,90	Hardcover: Not yet available
Paperback: Not yet available	Paperback: Not yet available
Audio-CD: Not yet available	Audio-CD: Not yet available