Krakatoa, Simon Winchester
Krakatoa, Simon Winchester
83 Rating(s)
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Krakatoa

Author: Simon Winchester

Narrator: Simon Winchester

Unabridged: 12 hr 1 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/13/2004


Synopsis

The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano -- Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa -- the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster -- was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere.Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.

About Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on February 22, 2023

Reading Simon Winchester books is a bit like reading a web page. You start in one place, but soon succumb to sundry alluring links. On-line, of course, we are all much likelier to then wander off on yet more linked tangents, but thankfully, in his actual, paper and ink book, Winchester keeps bringin......more

Goodreads review by Emily on November 10, 2009

Over the weekend I read Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883, a book in which Simon Winchester has the gall to make fun of a geographically mistitled film called "Krakatoa, East of Java," while himself failing to provide an adequate map of the region. There are historical maps, ther......more

Goodreads review by Clif on August 28, 2022

The reader of this book learns about plate tectonics, bio-diversity, the Wallace Line, and history of the Dutch East Indies Company before reaching the big explosion. Then there's the false start, followed later by the big blast, and then all sorts of stories follow. Then there's more science lesson......more