|
|
The Anglican Church in Tasmania Search |
|
a healthy church...transformingLIFE |
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
Book review -
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
Many books and a number of television programs have appeared on the subject of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii and the neighbouring towns, in August AD 79. This book by literary thriller writer, Robert Harris, is a novel set during the last four days of Pompeii. Although it is a novel, it is researched with much care and the result is an intriguing story set in historical perspective. The excavations of Pompeii have provided us with an extraordinary picture of Roman people and life set in pumice. Well-known scholars like Pliny who recorded the eruption in detail and local officials whose names have been the subject of graffiti, appear in this novel and come to life. In fact at times it is difficult to distinguish between the fiction and the fact. The hero of the story is a newly-appointed Water Engineer or Aquarius. He has replaced his predecessor who has disappeared. The giant aqueduct is failing and Marcus Attilius Primus has, with great difficulty, to find the cause of the blockage in the system. His enquiries uncover considerable skulduggery and corruption as the gradual eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of the towns takes place. EnergyIt has been reckoned that the thermal energy released during the eruption was about 100 000 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb! This will give some idea of the frightening experience and devastation caused by volcano. The book does contain a romantic thread. It also contains on a few occasions some coarse language, but it is a tremendous story and it is brilliantly written. Some shopping around will reveal a much lower price than the RRP. It would make a good Christmas present for those who appreciate excitement |
|
|||||||
|
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
