Drop city - T. Coraghessan Boyle

On Thursday, 8th May 1902, the citizens of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, huddled together in their spectacular cathedral of Notre Dame, for only God could save them from the disaster about to befall their city. Earlier that morning, the sky had turned black with volcanic dust and a slow, steady rain of ash had begun to fall on the city. Mont Pelee, the island volcano that had remained dormant for so long, had suddenly come alive. The rumblings of the volcano soon turned into a savage roar, and within minutes the beautiful city (hailed as the Paris of the Caribbean) had been destroyed along with its 30,000 inhabitants. The only apparent survivor of the disaster was Ludger Sylbaris, a 27 year-old labourer who had spent the previous night in solitary confinement in Saint-Pierre jail. The eruption was the most sensational event of its time. Sylbaris was taken on by P.T. Barnum's famous circus and became a minor celebrity as he toured America recounting the horrors of the explosion. This is the story of that fateful day, the complex political events that played a part in the tragedy and a history of the island itself.