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Book Summary and Reviews of A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

A Crack in the Edge of the World by Simon Winchester

A Crack in the Edge of the World

America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906

by Simon Winchester

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  • Published:
  • Oct 2005, 480 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Simon Winchester brings his inimitable take to this story, exploring not only what happened in Northern California in 1906, but what we have learned since then about the geological underpinnings that caused the earthquake in the first place. Winchester's achievement is to position the quake's significance along the earth's geological timeline, while also showing the effect it had on the rest of 20th-century American history.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

'With fabulous style, wit and grace, Winchester casts doubt on the very notion of solid ground and invites the reader to ponder the planet they live on, from both inside and out.' - PW

This information about A Crack in the Edge of the World was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Simon Winchester Author Biography

Simon Winchester, OBE, a British writer, journalist and broadcaster, was born in north London on 28th September 1944, the only child of Bernard and Andrée Winchester (née deWael).

Though not Catholic, he was educated first at a boarding convent in Bridport, Dorset and later at Hardye's School, Dorchester, Dorset. After taking time off to hitch-hike around Canada and the United States for almost a year between leaving school and entering university, he went up to Oxford in 1963, to read geology at St. Catherine's College.

After graduation in 1966 he joined a Canadian mining company, Falconbridge of Africa, and worked as field geologist in Uganda, looking for copper deposits in the foothills of the Ruwenzori Mountains, close to the border with Congo.

He then made a ...

... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Simon Winchester's Website

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