City Lights celebrates the paperback release of
A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis
By Jeanne Carstensen
Published by Atria/One Signal Publishers
A 2026 FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE AND THE PEN/GALBRAITH AWARD FOR NONFICTION
Five Days at Memorial meets Into the Raging Sea in this “vivid snapshot of a broken asylum system” (Kirkus Reviews)—the gripping true story of a devastating shipwreck during the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
On October 28, 2015, a boat meant for only a few dozen passengers capsized off the coast of the Greek island of Lesvos. Hundreds of refugees, forced in desperation onto the overloaded boat manned by armed smugglers, were tossed into a roiling sea. The resulting loss of life, the largest in a single day during the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, shocked the world.
After nearly a decade of research and interviews, investigative reporter Jeanne Carstensen has captured every detail of the dramatic twenty-four hours. This includes the recollections of the refugees’ lives before they left their homes and a full account of the courageous rescue efforts of the Greek islanders and volunteers rushing to help, even as their government and the EU failed to act. In this remarkable narrative feat, Carstensen brilliantly showcases the extraordinary heroism of ordinary people in extreme circumstances.
In a world where forced migration is on the rise, and where standing up to protect our neighbors can come at great personal risk, A Greek Tragedy challenges us to confront our collective humanity. This unforgettable testament of our times is “a crushing account of a senseless tragedy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)and a compassionate depiction of the lengths to which a person will go to save another human being.
Jeanne Carstensen is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, Salon, and on NPR’s The World. She covered the Syrian refugee crisis in Greece and Turkey and has been awarded grants and fellowships from The Pulitzer Center, Logan Nonfiction Program, and Mesa Refuge, where she was the Peter Barnes Long-Form Journalism fellow. She makes her home in San Francisco.
Saumya Roy is a contributor to How We See It: The World Looks At America in The Age of Trump (New Press, 2026). She is also the author of Castaway Mountain: Love and Loss Among the Waste Pickers of Mumbai (Astra House, 2021), a narrative nonfiction book about waste pickers in Mumbai’s vast landfill. It was selected among many the best books of the year by NPR, Washington Independent Week In Review, Telegraph India, print.in, and GQ India among others. She has also written for The Guardian, aljazeera.com,bbc.com, The New York Times, the examination.org, the wire.in, among others.
This event made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation