Page 31 - Reader's House Magazine Issue 49

“The Year of the Tsunami” by Derrick Credito is a captivating debut novel that masterfully intertwines history, love, and suspense. Credito’s storytelling is both fearless and reverent, offering a unique perspective on promises and heritage. The characters are richly developed, and the plot is both engaging and thought-provoking.
Derrick Credito masterfully blends diverse cultural experiences and profound themes, creating a compelling narrative that captivates and inspires readers.
to Judaism. This would infuse the story with hope, love, wisdom, and compassion. I’ve al- ways been an advocate for Holocaust education. To me, survival is more than just staying alive; it can also mean keeping someone’s name and memory in the world after their lifetime.
As a professor of English and a musician, how have your experiences in both fields influenced your approach to storytelling in this novel?
Since 2011, I’ve been an adjunct professor at three Baltimore-area colleges, where I constant- ly interact with students from many different walks of life. The cultural diversity of my personal and professional life has always spilled into my writing. A six-year teaching assignment at a Chasidic high school for girls gave me a real window into Orthodox Judaism. This fueled the aspects of the story dealing with prayer and religious devotion.
As a singer-songwriter, I can be blunt and outspoken. After years of performing original songs about heavy topics like prison reform and abortion rights, I felt prepared as an author to address issues like anti-Semitism, homophobia, and sexual politics.
Wes Levine’s journey takes him across the globe, from Bangkok to Amsterdam. How did you choose these particular settings, and what role do they play in shaping the novel’s themes?
same city they narrowly had escaped during the Holocaust.
The novel explores some darker aspects of life in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. How did you balance this with the themes of love, faith, and legacy in Wes’s story?
Amsterdam’s Red Light District is located right next to the city’s Jewish Quarter. That proximity isn’t an issue in this culturally diverse city, where quite literally anything goes. Wes
is a compassionate character who brings his heart and his values into seedy and sacred environments alike. While fulfilling a spiritually meaningful legacy for his grandparents, Wes also wants to correct various injustices outside of Judaism. Cobbling together all those different elements into a cohesive storyline felt surpris- ingly natural to me.
Your debut novel takes on ambitious topics, from religious devotion to human trafficking. What were some of the challenges you faced in writing such
a complex narrative, and how did you overcome them?
Amsterdam has long been my True North. I figured, if two seemingly incompatible worlds — namely, the Jewish Quarter and the Red Light District — can coexist in the center of a liberal European city, then that deserves representation in literature.
While writing “Tsunami,” I read many books on everything from Jewish traditions to sex work. I interviewed rabbis, former Amster-
dam street musicians, doctors, and lawyers. Some readers might be turned off by a reli- gious-themed book, while others may balk at the risqué Red Light District setting. But I put it all on the table, and the result is a novel I’m proud of. I wouldn’t change a thing.
I’d only ever want to write about settings I’ve personally experienced myself. Having traveled widely in my young adult years, I ended up with a lot of material to draw upon. In the 2000s, I spent six years in the Asia-Pacific. But since Wes Levine’s journey from Bangkok to New Zealand is fictional, he experiences different dangers and pleasures — a different journey
— than I did. Since 2010, I’ve taken trips to Amsterdam almost annually. But it wasn’t until I received a travel grant in 2019 that I went back to Amsterdam to research Jewish history. While there, I visited a progressive synagogue that would inspire the fictional one in my novel.
Scribing a Torah becomes a significant act of remembrance for Wes. Can you share more about how this sacred act drives the emotional core of the story?
In “Tsunami,” Wes Levine’s paternal grand- parents pass away after a long life in the U.S. While traveling to Thailand as an English teach- er, the loss is still fresh for Wes. Also searching for his absent father, Wes is determined to harness his basic scribal training to honor his grandparents’ memory. Ultimately, Wes scribes a Torah for his grandparents in Amsterdam, the
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