A Crack in the Edge of the World

America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

By: Simon Winchester

Narrated by: Simon Winchester

Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

The international best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman and Krakatoa vividly brings to life the 1906

San Francisco Earthquake that leveled a city symbolic of America's relentless western expansion. Simon Winchester has also fashioned an enthralling and informative informative look at the tumultuous subterranean world that produces earthquakes, the planet's most sudden and destructive force.

In the early morning hours of April 18, 1906, San Francisco and a string of towns to its north-northwest and the south-southeast were overcome by an enormous shaking that was compounded by the violent shocks of an earthquake, registering 8.25 on the Richter scale. The quake resulted from a rupture in a part of the San Andreas fault, which lies underneath the earth's surface along the northern coast of California. Lasting little more than a minute, the earthquake wrecked 490 blocks, toppled a total of 25,000 buildings, broke open gas mains, cut off electric power lines throughout the Bay area, and effectively destroyed the gold rush capital that had stood there for a half century.

Perhaps more significant than the tremors and rumbling, which affected a swatch of California more than 200 miles long, were the fires that took over the city for three days, leaving chaos and horror in its wake. The human tragedy included the deaths of upwards of 700 people, with more than 250,000 left homeless. It was perhaps the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.Simon Winchester brings his inimitable storytelling abilities - as well as his unique understanding of geology - to this extraordinary event, exploring not only what happened in northern California in 1906 but what we have learned since about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. But his achievement is even greater: he positions the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline and shows the effect it had on the rest of 20th-century California and American history.

A Crack in the Edge of the World is the definitive account of the San Francisco earthquake. It is also a fascinating exploration of a legendary event that changed the way we look at the planet on which we live.

©2005 Simon Winchester (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Nonfiction (Unabridged)

"In this brawny page-turner, best-selling writer Winchester (Krakatoa, The Professor and the Madman) has crafted a magnificent testament to the power of planet Earth and the efforts of humankind to understand her." (Publishers Weekly)

7 Hours and 45 minutes . . .

That's how long it takes for the author to get to the actual story of the San Francisco earthquake. Yes - that's right almost 8 hours!

I would love to write a review that says - "what a great book", but I honestly can't. I read "Krakatoa" last year, and liked it so well I gave two copies as Christmas presents, however my one complaint about the book was the ratio of background material to the actual story that the book was supposed to be about.

In this book, the problem reaches EPIDEMIC proportions. Probably 1/4 of the book deals with the 1906 earthquake directly. The rest is Simon's travels around the US to other seismically active regions, commentary on the Chinese immigrants in San Francisco, the history of the Pentecostal movement in the US, etc..... If you read reviews on Amazon.com, even those who like the book comment on Winchester's meanderings (often without a clear direction toward a given point).

I don't care how many degrees from Oxford the man has. What this man needs is a good editor - one that will tell him that his endless ramblings will turn off many readers who will put the book down, rather than endure 2/3 of the book until he gets to the point.

When he does get to the point (finally) some of the material is interesting, however, the lack of human interest stories is really a downer.

A major disaster like the San Francisco earthquake can surely justify a book of this length, however Winchester must believe that 3-4 chapters of the book are sufficient.

Sadly, this will be probably be the last Simon Winchester book I read.

Not a scientific work

Mr. Winchester is not a geologist or even a scientist. Rather he is a journalist whose writing wanders around the 1906 earthquake, declares the evils of capitalism (including an anti-Walmart rant) and delineates a plan for terrorists to blow up the Alaska pipe line. This is geology??

Far too much detail, lacks emotion

Author has a tendency to go off on tangents many of which barely stay on point. Listening at times is very laborious as the author elaborates on whatever extraneous topic seems to pop into his head. When finished I’m sure you’ll be able to pick up an easy three credits at any university that offers a geology course as the depth of detail covering the evolution of volcanoes as well as tectonic plates is the equal of any text book you’ll find on the subject. There is no connection to any main characters that typically draw the reader into a book so they can truly experience the emotional magnitude of the event as it effects the character.

A poor choice

I've listened to several dozen books from Audible.com -- and dozens of others. This is a dreadful book -- boring, slow, and read poorly. It is the only book I've ever stopped listening to. Don't waste your money, or credit, on this one.

Memoir Not Science

This author is so self-possesed as to drive one crazy. The first hour talks about his drive across America and a camping trip. Not science. Not worth listening to.