Anatomy of a flood

Ms Ge seems to have conducted an endless number of interviews and she painstakingly reproduces them in her book. This is a powerful narrative technique

On December 1, 2015, a record downpour of 490 mm — often described as “once in a 100-year” rainfall — inundated Chennai, killing hundreds and displacing thousands of its citizens. It also exposed how Indian cities are ill-prepared for such extreme weather events, which are likely to become more and more common as the climate change situation worsens. In Rivers Remember, Ms Ge — a writer, editor and citizen of Chennai — investigates what caused the calamity in her hometown and arrives at the conclusion that more than extreme weather it was administrative apathy that worsened the situation. This is