 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
Krakatoa
By Simon Winchester
Viking $35.00
 Dense though his subjects might appear, and as impeccable as his research is, British writer Simon Winchester is highly readable, as those who have enjoyed his bestsellers, The Surgeon of Crowthorne and The Map That Changed the World, will know.
This time around, a volcanic island, rather than an outstanding person, takes centre-stage, and the result is just as fascinating.
The island that would become known, for no apparent reason as Krakatoa, was first mentioned by 16th century Dutch explorers as lying in the Sunda Strait, between the islands of Java and Sumatra, and having a 'high top or pointed mountain.'
The remnant of this, some 90 years after the most devastating eruptions in world history, grabbed the author's interest when he stood on a hillside in western Java contemplating a scene, and a past, that would lead him to produce the most complete account of - in the words of the subtitle -'the day the world exploded.'
Winchester recalls, "A couple of low islands hugged the horizon to the right. In between them was one small and perfectly formed, absolutely symmetrical low cone, from which rose a thin wisp of smoke no more than a slow-fading stain against the salmon glow of sunset."
A quarter of a century later he was back and could not believe his eyes: the island, known as Krakatoa's 'Anak' (child), seemed to have grown significantly since his last visit.
"The small island-mountain, which had been born out of the sea forty-odd years after the very explosion that destroyed and vaporised its parent, was now growing at an average rate of about five inches a week."
It was 500 feet taller than when he had last seen it.
After an extensive scene-setting, including several hundred years of European rivalry over the spice trade, Winchester gets down to describing the tremors and eruptions that would climax on 27 August 1883.
Between 5.30am and 10.02am, four great explosions transformed the mountain into 'utter and complete oblivion.'
Six cubic miles of rock were blasted out of existence, the immediate damage including the destruction of 165 villages, 36,417 people and uncountable injured.
Massive tsunami resulted, and dramatic sunsets seen around the world. Rafts of pumice, many bearing remains of victims, drifted as far as Africa, grisly testaments to the biggest natural disaster in history.
He adds, ominously, that Krakatoa's lava-strewn, sulphurous 'child' is "all too evidently primed, ready at an instant to explode again."
- Thanks to Book Warehouse in Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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