RaveThe RumpusDeraniyagala is alone and desperate to share her sorrow. She responds to the world the way the tsunami treated her family—with a savage anger—and you share her sadness ... This memoir engages the reader more deeply than any piece of fiction. For tragedy fetishists, Wave has every possible permutation and combination of pain. On the one hand, it is so shocking to imagine one person going through this that it is hard to believe you are reading nonfiction. But perhaps because of that, you are constantly aware that you’re reading nonfiction ... This is much more than a sad book. This is a book that shifts something fundamental inside you.
Mathangi Subramanian
PositiveThe New York Times Book Review\"[The book] starts a little heavy-handed ... But as the book progresses, the metaphors calm down and Subramanian finds her footing, the language taking on a musicality that is in sharp contrast to the bleak setting ... Parts of this novel read like independent vignettes, almost poetry ... At first it feels as though we’ve read this tale before: one in which girls are hated from the minute they’re conceived, women are valued only for their wombs, men are drunk and philandering, sadness piled on top of depression sitting atop cruelty. But then Subramanian surprises us. Moments of genuine joy (though I wish a character didn’t actually have to be named Joy) burst through ... A few elements are glossed over too lightly, as if perhaps Subramanian is afraid of the current or future sociopolitical climate in India ... Despite its uplifting-enough ending, though, A People’s History of Heaven feels scattered, new characters being introduced here and there to help tie up loose threads ... This is a strong debut by Subramanian. In the future, she might trust her readers a bit more, and allow herself the freedom to reveal a world of her creation in which not everything needs to represent something else.\
