“A Greek Tragedy was just published, but it already feels like an elegy. . . . Jeanne Carstensen’s astoundingly well-reported book suggests that when governance falters and we are plunged, metaphorically at least, into a borderless sea, rescue will depend on holding on to what we have in common.”
—Gary Wolf, The Battleground

“In her debut book, journalist Carstensen powerfully [tells] a contemporary history of heartbreaking loss with clarity and compassion.”
—Laurie Unger Skinner, Booklist

“Journalist Carstensen debuts with a riveting blow-by-blow account of the Oct. 28, 2015, sinking […] It’s a crushing account of a senseless tragedy.”
—Publisher's Weekly, starred review

“An up-close look at an ongoing calamity. Carstensen emphasizes islanders, local fishermen, and foreign volunteers who rescued many and provided food, shelter, and medical care so well that the island was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. A vivid snapshot of a broken asylum system.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“An extraordinary account of a devastating tragedy. This meticulously reported book details not only the 2015 shipwreck that killed dozens of asylum seekers en route to Greece, but the lives of the survivors, the dead, and the rescue workers who took great risks to save them. This is the story of a single catastrophe at sea, but also a window into the savagery of borders writ large, and their tremendous human costs.”
—Lauren Markham, author of A Map of Future Ruins and The Faraway Brothers

“With dogged reporting and great humanity, Jeanne Carstensen has written a powerful epic of ordinary people thrust into a border-crossing drama of survival. A Greek Tragedy is a gripping, heart-wrenching tale with a huge cast, and it is essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the migrations and the injustices of our modern world.”
—Héctor Tobar, author of Our Migrant Souls and Deep Down Dark

"A Greek Tragedy is a gripping, engrossing page-turner. Through meticulous reporting, Carstensen writes an unflinching look at one memorable day in the massive migration crisis and the impossible, life-or-death choices faced by everyone involved. These searing stories will stay with me.”
—Jessica Goudeau, author of After the Last Border

"A Greek Tragedy is a gripping reconstruction that illuminates the individual lives brought together by a fatal shipwreck. Carstensen's skillful reporting shows us how love and courage survive in the face of disaster."
—Matthieu Aikins, author of The Naked Don’t Fear The Water

“Alternately in the news and ignored, the refugee crisis is a permanent, painful part of our era. Jeanne Carstensen reminds us that there are well over 100 million displaced people in the world. Through a deep look into one tragic shipwreck, she vividly brings alive survivors, victims and helpers in a way that stands for the larger tragedy of which this event was a part.”
—Adam Hochschild, bestselling author of King Leopold’s Ghost and American Midnight

“A Greek Tragedy is the gripping account of a horrid maritime disaster, a beguiling saga, and an unputdownable book. This is meticulously researched, masterful reporting."
—Rabih Alameddine, award-winning author of An Unnecessary Woman and The Wrong End of the Telescope

"Like any Greek tragedy, Jeanne Carstensen’s book puts us face to face with our mortal selves. And like any great Greek tragedy, it exposes to us the full spectrum of our humanness, in all of its ambition and love and generosity and apathy and greed: for it is not Olympian gods but the callous men and women in power at whose behest we live and die. At the time of the greatest human migration in recent history, A Greek Tragedy—tender, unsparing, meticulously researched—is an unparallelled chronicle."
—Anna Badkhen, author of Bright Unbearable Reality