From the tsunami in Sri Lanka to the war in Iraq to the starvation in Niger and ultimately to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and Mississippi, Cooper gives us a firsthand glimpse of the devastation that takes place, both physically and emotionally, when the normal order of things is violently ruptured on a massive scale.

Tsunami: washed away -- Iraq: inkblots of blood -- Niger: night sweats -- Katrina: facing the storm.