Shock Waves

by Hanabeth Luke, Tim Baker (Foreword)

You're young, in love, and in paradise … surfing, traveling, partying.
Then in one terrifying wave of heat and noise your reality shatters into a million pieces that can never be put back together.

Hanabeth was hamming it up on the dance floor when a loud bang momentarily silenced silenced the music and dimmed the lights.

'The noise which came next I will never forget... It was a thud, line the slam of a car door but multipled to a volume I simply cannot describe,' Hanabeth writes in this extraordinary memoir.

She found herself escaping from the flames of the Sari Club only to find that her boyfriend had been killed, and a photo had been taken of her leading a young man, Tom Singer away from the fires.

This heart-wrenching story of young love and lives cut short is chilling and confronting, yet it is the story of what Hanabeth has done since which brings a spark of hope and light to this terrible chapter in our history.

Confronting world leaders, campaigning for peace and against the war on terror, resolving to squeeze the most from every day, Hanabeth's inspirational tale provides a stirring case study in survival and healing.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2012

Reviews

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. As someone who grew up in Cornwall and knew the author while growing up, the parts of the book relating to people and places very familiar to me were fantastic and brought back many incredible memories, yet interesting and well written enough to be wholly enjoyable to anyone without ties to the Cornish surfing community. The parts about the bombs and the aftermath were of course harder to read, though I thought Hanabeth did a fantastic job, not only of setting the scene of the events and the aftermath, but of explaining how those events affected the lives of the people directly and indirectly involved in the attacks. The book of course deals with grief, how life goes on yet is never quite the same after such a tragedy, but the biggest takeaway is a reminder of how great life can be if you live it to the max and not allow events that are out of your control to affect your happiness.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

As she is my Aunt I think I found it even more enthralling than I had expected. To learn about the good, the bad, and the absolutely terrible things that went on in her life through her amazing writing skills is an honor. I immensely enjoyed the book, it was beautiful and sad and gave me a better perspective on the thoughts and feelings that surround traumatic events in a real person's life, a person that I know.

[H.M.C. H.M.C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hanabeth Luke's account of her life before and after the Bali bombings is a rich and beautiful story about courage, and one woman's search for peace. From chasing waves and summers, to falling in love and all that encompasses, Hanabeth shares with us how she coped after the Bali bombings, and how the tragedy amplified her belief in peace.
Well-written and heart-felt, Shock Waves is a must read for all Aussies.