Direct Download: 20040429-simonwi.mp3

Perhaps best known for his work The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester now focuses his attention on the devastating volcanic eruption of Krakatoa. The explosion, heard almost 3,000 miles a way, resulted in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people. Publisher's Weekly considers Krakatoa to be, "An erudite, fascinating account by one of the foremost purveyors of contemporary nonfiction, [that] chronicles the underlying causes, utter devastation and lasting effects of the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of the volcano island Krakatoa in what is now Indonesia." Winchester also wrote The Map That Changed the World, The Fracture Zone, and many other titles.