Leading up to the July 12/13 third anniversary of the tragic 2012 landslides in Johnsons Landing, author Amanda Bath is touring with her new memoir, Disaster in Paradise: The Landslides in Johnsons Landing.
She is giving presentations throughout the Kootenays to commemorate what the community lost and to help all British Columbians learn how to read the signs of an oncoming natural disaster. Join her for a presentation and book signing at 7 p.m. June 25 at Black Bear Books.
Disaster in Paradise is the first book about the 2012 Johnsons Landing landslides — two natural disasters that devastated the picturesque Kootenay Lake community. The landslides made national headlines. Bath’s house was flattened by the first slide an hour after she left the area, and when she returned less than 24 hours later to try to rescue her cat, she had less than a minute of warning before a second landslide completely buried what remained of her home. Her escape from the second landslide was caught on video by a news crew who had left the same beach minutes earlier and the footage went viral on YouTube.
Disaster in Paradise is the story of Bath’s trauma and healing, but it is also the story of a community as it joined together to mourn and gradually rebuild in the wake of tragedy. In total, the landslides destroyed six homes and killed four people. The book is both a chronicle of a B.C. tragedy and a warning for the future.
Bath was born and raised in England, and lived in London before moving to the tiny community of Johnsons Landing in 1993. She holds a PhD in Catalan literature and worked in human rights research for Amnesty International for a decade. She now lives in Kaslo with her husband.
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