Until the hour of separation

Here’s another old lie: “Sous les pavés, la plage”—“beneath the pavement, the beach,” that much quoted Situationist graffito from Paris in 1968. In the 21st century we know that if it’s the beach you want then forget about tearing up the paving stones: fly economy and head to the shore. And that’s where so many people were on Boxing Day 2004: on the sands, when that unimaginable natural force—a tsunami—hit. Dominic Stephenson, elder brother of this book’s author, was there and died at the age of 27. Let Not the Waves of the Sea is the younger brother’s account of that tragedy and how, as a brother and a young doctor and scriptwriter, he has made sense of it all.

Stephenson patiently starts with geography, by detailing and helping you visualise the island of Ko Phi Phi. Among other attributes, this book is a …