Amanda Ripley Author of The Unthinkable

The Unthinkable will be published in Sweden by Forum in the spring of 2009.

One of the survivors profiled in the book is Kent Härstedt, a member of Sweden’s parliament who survived the worst sea disaster in modern European history. The MV Estonia ferry sunk in the Baltic Sea on the night of September 28, 1994. Härstedt patiently shared with me the detailed story of his own unlikely survival. He also talked about what he saw other people do on the ship that night, from a man who smoked a cigarette on the deck as the ship slipped deeper into the sea to the groups of people who seemed frozen, unable to move and save themselves. The tragedy killed 852 people. The story of what happened on the ship in those terrible last moments offers a remarkable glimpse into how the brain processes extreme fear and uncertainty.