Sonali Deraniyagala

Sonali Deraniyagala (born 1964) is a Sri Lankan memoirist and economist. She currently serves as a lecturer in Economics at the SOAS South Asia Institute. She considers Joan Didion and Michael Ondaatje her favourite literary heroes. Personal life She was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to lawyer (Justin) Edward Pieris Deraniyagala and Gemini Deraniyagala. Other members of the Deraniyagala family include the civil servant and historian Sir Paul Edward Pieris Deraniyagala Samarasinha Sriwardhana, the artist Justin Pieris Deraniyagala, and the zoologist Paulus Edward Pieris Deraniyagala. In 1990, she married economist Dr Stephen Lissenburgh (1964-2004), who "made large contributions to British public policy research". While on vacation at Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in December 2004, she lost her husband, their two sons, her parents, her best friend, and her best friend's mother in the Indian Ocean tsunami. The tsunami carried her two miles inland and she was able to survive by clinging to a tree branch. She reportedly suffered unconsciousness and internal bleeding. Following the tsunami, she was taken to her aunt's house in Colombo. There, she stayed beneath the covers of her cousin’s bed, hoarding sleeping pills for comfort and solace; she attempted to stab herself with a butter knife and smashed her head on the sharp corner of the wooden headboard of the bed in reaction to the trauma of the tsunami. She attempted to commit suicide and also began using alcohol in a bid to forget the tragedy.