When the Waves Came

"An extraordinary accomplishment and an important piece of writing..." Marie Mutsuki Mockett, author of Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye



"MW Larson has made an important contribution to the English-speaking world's understanding of the events in Japan during and after March 11, 2011. Larson's book captures the complexity of what happened: a triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident that took the lives of almost 20,000 people, and uprooted hundreds of thousands more. Larson gives a textured and compassionate account of those events via the accounts of people who lived through them. He shows a journalist's ability to listen, and a novelist's flair for bringing those stories to life. He also shows an intense concern for the fate of Tohoku, having spent much time himself up in the disaster zone, which shows in his feel for places and the people. The personal connection makes the story all the more compelling, as the disaster has clearly changed Larson's life as well. Well done!" -- Martin Fackler, former Tokyo bureau chief for the New York Times



Larson follows the lives of a hairdresser, a café owner, a cattle rancher, and a nuclear-energy worker from the moment the 2011 tsunami hit Japan's Tohoku region through the subsequent years of recovery, grief, and frustration. In simple, straightforward prose, Larson chronicles their attempts to recover what they had lost despite a government response replete with missed opportunities and predictable missteps.