Krakatoa : The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester

In the early misty hours of 27 August 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa lying 44 kilometers off the coast of West Java disintegrated in one of the most violent explosions in recorded history.
 
When the central mountain erupted, it heaved out 20 cubic kilometers of rock, causing the island to collapse and allowing sea water to rush into its fiery crater. The resulting explosion was catastrophic. Countless tons of rocks, dust and pumice were hurled 20 kilometers into the sky.
 
Bodies washed up in Zanzibar and volcanic debris landed on Madagascar on the other side of the Indian Ocean. Ships sailing the Red Sea were covered in ash. The boom was heard in Brisbane and India thousands of kilometers away, atmospheric waves circled the globe seven times, and for three years volcanic dust and clouds from the explosion circled the earth, creating sensational multi-hued sunsets.
 
The destruction was terrific - not from volcanic debris but from the seismic sea waves (tsunamis) which     followed. These tidal waves reached 30 meters high, wiping out 163 villages and killing over 40,000 people along the coasts of western Java and southern Sumatra and rocking vessels as far away as the English Channel. A chain of explosions all but destroyed Rakata Besar, leveling its original peak and digging a submarine cavity 400 meters below sea level.
 
Written by an acknowledged master of contemporary nonfiction (The Professor and the Madman; The Map That Changed the World), Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded is a frightening story of a cataclysmic disaster that employs a populist blend of laymen’s geology and fast-paced narrative history.
 
Krakatoa erupted at a time when new technologies like undersea telegraph cables and ocean-going steamships were taking hold and Asian trade routes were being  expanded by northern European powers. This bustling colonial backdrop provides an effective canvas for the suspense leading up to August 27th, 1883, when the   island of Krakatoa would totally vaporize.
 
Winchester postulates that there were even more far-reaching and sinister effects: the destruction wrought by the volcano would became the catalyst to a dramatic and bloody uprising of the region’s Muslim community against their Western colonial masters, leading to the re-emergence of radical Islam. It might seem far-fetched to connect a volcanic eruption with the civil and religious unrest  existent in Indonesia today, but Simon Winchester makes a compelling case. 
 
A criticism frequently cited by readers who reviewed the book on Amazon.com is that the maps are found wanting. But it’s unfair to say, as one reader did, “...take a look at the maps on the first few pages and see if you can figure out where Krakatoa is. You won't be able to.” I was able to. On the contrary, the maps were plucked from the  atlases of the time and give the story’s telling an aura of credibility and authenticity.
 
Likewise, Krakatoa’s illustrations of everything from tidal waves to colonial rogues, from pepper plants to plate tectonic zones are copies from black and white lithographic plates. I find this also acceptable because it keeps down the book’s cover price and forces the reader to surrender wholly to his imagination.
 
This is not difficult. Bursting with anecdote, exhaustive and fascinating detail, dramatic eyewitness accounts and replete with a wonderful cast of characters, Krakatoa is an erudite and vivid tale of an iconic event of modern world history that combines well-researched science and riveting high drama.
 
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded by Simon Winchester, Viking (a Penquin imprint), London, ISBN           0-670-01428-2, 432 pages, paperback.
 
Available for Rp170,000 at Periplus Bookshops in the Bali Galleria and in the Matahari in Kuta, Warung Made in Seminyak, Ngurah Rai Airport (both international and   domestic terminals), Keris Gallery in Nusa Dua and in Gramedia bookstores.
 
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