Review: Saved at the Seawall, by Jessica DuLong

Jessica DuLong, a writer and a former mariner, spent years tracking down the people involved in the single-largest water evacuation in American history. Then, she managed to weave together their stories into a narrative that both places you in the terrifying chaos of that day and grounds you in the individual stories of the firefighters, the police, the captains, the crew, and the civilians.

Normally, I like to read books while I’m sitting outside in open-air cafes or bars, but I had to stop doing that with this book because the tears kept flowing. The reason: This isn’t just a book that strings together the events of the day; it’s also a treatise on the human spirit and our ability to rally around each other in the most dire of circumstances.

I’ll end this by telling you, dear reader, what I’ve told everyone else in my life: Read this book. It’s a fascinating, beautiful, heartbreaking story about the triumph of the human spirit on one of our country’s darkest days.