A wave that killed thousands and crushed many more

Reading Ghosts of the Tsunami is a grim experience at times but, not unlike those grisly clips on YouTube, it’s very difficult to tear yourself away

A survivor of Japan’s tsunami cries amid the wreckage of her hometown Pic: Getty

Climate/current affairs: Ghosts of the Tsunami, By Richard Lloyd Parry, Jonathan Cape, €23

In preparation for reviewing this gripping and often sickening account of the tsunami that engulfed Japan in March 2011, I forced myself to sit through a few of the countless clips of the event that litter YouTube. Some are effectively snuff movies. A doomed man sits on a floating house’s roof, a car is swallowed up while trying to outpace ...