A Crack in the Edge of the World (63 page)

A true portrait of one of the world's most chaotic and beautiful regions that explains why violence has always occurred there—and why it may continue to occur there for years to come.

“A vivid, informative history of the Balkans.”

—
Chicago Tribune

“Scholarly and moving … combines historical significance with dramatic insight.”

—
Independent

Fascinating for its vivid presentation of historical and geographic detail,
Korea
is that rare book that actually defines a land and its people, while providing Winchester's gift for writing about engaging characters in true, compelling stories.

“Immensely readable.… Winchester made his journey of over three hundred miles on foot, a remarkable achievement in itself and one that afforded him a unique opportunity to experience both the country and its people at a grassroots level.”

—
Guardian

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on't miss the next book by your favorite author. Sign up now for Author Tracker by visiting
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.

—
Entertainment Weekly

“Winchester's
exhilarating
new book describes what happened that fateful spring morning and, just as crucially, why. It is the
dramatic
story not just of a city's destruction but also of a planet's construction.…
Hugely entertaining
.”

—Bernard Cornwell,
Mail on Sunday

“Winchester turns his
formidable storytelling
talents to the earthquake that destroyed San Francisco on April 18, 1906 … [but] doesn't lose track of the human toll caused by natural disasters.”

—
People
(
four stars
)

“A
richly companionable
volume.…
The joys of Winchester's book are many
.”—
San Francisco Chronicle
(a Best Book of the Year selection)

“Winchester's
timely
new book teaches—reminds, really—that we should have quite precise worries about the incurably unstable ground on which scores of millions of Americans live.”

—George Will,
Washington Post

“
[An] important contribution
.… Winchester brings his formidable storytelling talents and his passion for history, but also solid earth-science credentials.…
A grand and accessible adventure
.”

—
Science

“
Brims with colorful detail
—which makes for lively reading …
a richly textured, informative, compelling account
.”

—
Times Literary Supplement

“
Spellbind[ing]
.… This is nonfiction, but Winchester, also a novelist, utilizes the strategies of fiction: playing with the reader's growing anticipation of the event itself … Winchester [is] our geological Cassandra.”

—
Miami Herald

“A virtual guidebook to the world of tremors and earthquakes and the geological conditions that produce them.… A
thoughtful and illuminating
book by an author in
impressive
command of his subject.”

—
Houston Chronicle

“A
grand
tour of the world's tectonic plates and the major seismic events through the ages.”

—
Forbes

“
Winchester is at his best
in
A Crack in the Edge of the World
…
dramatic
… fascinating … [written in] lovely prose.”

—
New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Without slighting the human suffering of the victims of earthquakes, tsunamis, and other natural disasters, Winchester places their tragedies in an almost
cosmic
context.”

—
Boston Globe

“A
wonderful, entertaining
history of the Great San Francisco Earthquake and a history of the development of the field of geography and plate tectonics.
Winchester is a master
.”

—
Salt Lake City Tribune
(a Best Book of the Year selection)

“Highly readable,
brilliantly researched
.”

—
Hartford Courant

“
[A] near-novelistic narrative
… puts the tremendous earthquake into a planet-wide context, while still illuminating the characters at the center of the story.”

—
San Francisco Weekly

“
Superb
.”

—
Sunday Times
(London)

“A
magnificent
testament to the power of planet Earth and the efforts of humankind to understand her. A
master storyteller
and Oxford-trained geologist, Winchester effortlessly weaves together countless threads of interest, making
a powerfully compelling narrative
.”

—
Publishers Weekly
(starred review)

“
A must-read
.… Winchester's tale excels at unfolding a complicated scientific story as part of a narrative.”

—
Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Engagingly,
captivatingly readable
… written with a passion and intelligence that makes it compelling as Winchester describes the fragility of our world.”

—
Independent
(London)

“A
panoramic
blend of history and science that captures the event and its destructive aftermath with
gripping
immediacy.”

—
Tucson Citizen

“
Eloquent
… a very good book.”

—
San Jose Mercury News

“
Fascinating
.… Winchester combines a gift for storytelling and a passion for geology to compelling effect.”

—
Time Out
(London)

“
A story that still resonates
.… Winchester puts these past natural disasters in their proper place: in the context of geological as well as human history.”

—
Denver Post

“
Truly compelling
.”

—
Contra Costa Times

“A
gripping
account of how and why the earth's largest moving parts slip, slide, strike, and subduct as they do … fascinatingly described.”

—
Sunday Telegraph

“
A great story
in its own right, but juxtaposed against current events, it is
prescient
.”

—CNN

“A lyrical vision.…
Read it and shiver
.”

—
Herald
(Glasgow)

“
Required reading
.… Winchester details the destruction of San Francisco—not just from the quake, but the fires that followed—and the geology behind it.”

—
New York Post

“
An illuminating analysis
of the way Western cities cope (or not) with natural disasters.…
Fascinating
… a seminal story.”

—
Times Educational Supplement

“A good writer can make complicated topics easy to grasp, and
a great writer
can make them
entertaining
as well. Winchester personifies this ability. He brings on his journey a storyteller's excitement, making the events and facts, which often include his own experiences, read
more like a novel than a history or science book
.”

—
Tokyo Daily Yomiuri

“
A memorable tale
.”

—
Business Week

“Arguably
Winchester's best
. In it, Winchester's talents as a writer and journalist are yoked to his training as a geologist in his Oxford days. The effect is
spellbinding
. Thorough, witty, and written with an assurance that comes from the author's knowledge of his subject inside-out, this is popular history at its best.…
This book has it all
.”

—
Edmonton Journal

A
LSO BY
S
IMON
W
INCHESTER

The Meaning of Everything

Krakatoa

The Map That Changed the World

The Fracture Zone

The Professor and the Madman

In Holy Terror

American Heartbeat

Their Noble Lordships

Stones of Empire

Outposts

Prison Diary: Argentina

Hong Kong: Here Be Dragons

Korea: A Walk Through the Land of Miracles

Pacific Rising

Small World

Pacific Nightmare

The River at the Center of the World

Maps on pages x–xiii and 276–77 by Laura Hartman Maestro

Maps on pages 168, 183, and 260 by Nick Springer

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2005 by HarperCollins Publishers.

P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.

A CRACK IN THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
. Copyright © 2005 by Simon Winchester. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

F
IRST
H
ARPER
P
ERENNIAL EDITION PUBLISHED
2006.

The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover edition as follows: Winchester, Simon.

A
crack in the edge of the world: America and the great California earthquake of 1906 / Simon Winchester.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-10: 0-06-057199-3 (alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-057199-3 (alk. paper)

1. San Francisco Earthquake, Calif., 1906. 2. Earthquakes—California—San Francisco—History—20th century. 3. San Francisco (Calif.)—History—20th century I. Title.

F869.S357W56 2005

979.4'61051—dc22

2005046009

ISBN-10: 0-06-057200-0 (pbk.)

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-057200-6 (pbk.)

EPub Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN: 9780062277459

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