When I bought this book I expected to learn about what it was like to live through the world's worst natural disaster. The book did just that, but it was also so much more. I learned about four Thai families who have led very different lives than those of us in the United States. The book starts off by telling how these four families came to this fishing village. Most of them came out of desperation. Each of them had lost a family member from starvation or through other horrible circumstances. They had no money, no where to live, and would work for less than a dollar a day. For most of them, it took years to get on their feet. They slaved in tin mines, stole lobster out of Burmese traps like pirates, and took jobs with abusive bosses. You watch as they slowly piece together their lives, find love and hope. Then the tsunami hits. I had pictures in my head of what that day was like, but the picture the author paints through the people in the book is nothing like I imagined. It is fifty times worse. Dang, one of the women in the book, spent days looking for the body of her daughter. Then, when she was at her lowest, a company wanting to buy a hotel on her land, threatened to take her life if she returned. Wimon, another person in the book, lost eight members in his family. While he was looking for them, he realized that no help was coming to his village (it was all at the tourist spots) and put his grief on hold in order to get help to his neighbors.