单项选择题

Two years ago Japan was struck by a strong earthquake that triggered a disastrous tsunami. Now comes a sobering account of the human and environmental toll. Gretel Ehrlich, an American writer, flew to the north-east coast of the island of Honshu three months after the quake. A student of Japanese poetry and Buddhist philosophy, she was drawn to " meet those who faced the wave and survived" . Readers of her book can witness the devastation through keen eyes. This stretch of coastline was described by a 17th-century poet, Basho, as the most beautiful spot in Japan. In June 2011 it was "a plain of chaos, a monstrous picture that no eye, no painting could truly capture". Roving the 1,300 kilometres(800 miles)of shattered coast, Ms Ehrlich seeks out survivors and relays their stories. Pervasive are reports on the radiation spewing from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, reflections on human suffering and resilience, and a series of dreadful facts. More than 28,700 people died in Japan; thousands more went missing. The tsunami wave rose 38 metres(124 feet), washing away entire towns. The reactor meltdown caused "the worst maritime contamination disaster in recorded history". The energy released was 600m times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. "Three sorrows; quake, tsunami, meltdown", encapsulates the disaster. Ms Ehrlich does not provide a comprehensive reckoning, but a set of stories. The tsunami is retold as it happens through a blog updated as a fisherman races out to sea, uploading observations from his mobile phone. Months later, corpses still surface. One mother has rented an industrial digger and ceaselessly explores the river channel searching for her child. "The sea floor is covered in debris," an old fisherman says. " If you go trolling for flatfish, you might pull out a dead friend . " What can we learn from the last sentence