Bermuda A World Apart: An island and its people (Hardcover)

by Roger A. Labrucherie (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Born and raised in California, photojournalist Roger LaBrucherie began his exploration of islands in the late 1960s, when he undertook his training and service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

His formal education as an economist and lawyer at Harvard College and Stanford University has enabled him to bring an unusually deep and analytical approach to his subjects. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that his works are as highly acclaimed for their commitment to the research and accuracy of their texts as they are for the beauty of their visual presentations.

Among the islands he has covered to date are: Bermuda, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, as well as the Hawaiian Islands.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"For a very, very long time for time beyond mea- sure there was nothing. Nothing but the wind and the waves.

For aeons, the dark waves rolled and the wild winds swept over that deep, nameless sea. Then in the midst of those aeons, and far below the floor of the sea itself, fiery red lava from deep within the earth found a fissure in the earth's crust and began surging upward. As it breached the sea floor and came in contact with cold seawater, the outside of the molten flow cooled and hardened. But so hot was the lava at its core that the flow continued its upward surge, and layer upon layer of fresh lava spread over and built upon lava that had hardened before.

And so, little by little, a mountain began to grow on the bottom of the sea. It would grow for a very long time, this un- derwater volcano, for here the sea was nearly three miles deep, and the volcano was unpredictable, at times adding to its bulk for years, at other times lying dormant for long intervals. And then one day, there came the crack and sizzle of fiery hot lava meeting air and water together, as the mountain at long last thrust above the surface of the sea. And in that moment, the island that would come to be known as Bermuda was born."

-- Excerpt from Chapter Two: A World is Born.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 156 pages
• Publisher: Imagenes Pr (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0939302322
• ISBN-13: 978-0939302321
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #601,876 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent!, October 10, 2000

By A Customer

Extraordinary photography, combined with intelligent, concise, even poetic text. I am English, but I have lived in Boston for many years. Bermuda is perhaps my favorite island--for its civility, its quiet beauty, a little touch of England in the middle of the Atlantic. This book captures Bermuda as I have seen no other book do ... perhaps because it focusses on the small things: the tiny flower known as Bermudiana, the young schoolgirl gazing deep into the camera ... The picture captions are concise, but packed with information; the author chooses and rations his words carefully! There's also, for those who want it, a complete text which conveys the history of the island. A small quibble: there's no information about hotels, restaurants, etc. However, this is not a guidebook, but rather a coffee-table "documentary" book, and in that department it is incomparable.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely superb, July 1, 2000

By A Customer

Having travelled to Bermuda many times over the past twenty years (and I lived there for a time as well), I have to say this is the finest and most complete "coffee-table" book on the island that I have ever seen. It is large-format, filled with superb color photographs (including a lot of aerial shots as well as some archival photographs of Bermuda in the mid-20th century). The text gives you a concise, intelligent overview of Bermuda's history. I've given a number of copies to friends who love the island. The jacket blurb says the author was once a Peace Corps Volunteer, and it shows ... this is a real in-depth portrait, not just "post-cardy" superficial coverage. I have several other books on Bermuda, but this one is in a class by itself.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Bermudaful" book., December 5, 1999

By A Customer

This elegant photography book provides a thoughtful and perceptive portrait of a genteel world all of its own. It makes one think that to escape modern life, the place to go is Bermuda. There is a wide variety among the hundred fifty or so photographs, from close-ups of people to scenic panoramas, all in rich, lush colors. The beach scenes and sunsets are breathtaking. A bonus is the extensive historical background presented in an easy to absorb reader-friendly style. Particularly interesting are the stories of how Bermuda found itself squeezed between England and the Thirteen Colonies during the Revolutionary War and between North and South in the American Civil War. The author reveals that there were no cars on Bermuda until the 1940s and describes the more recent transformation of the island into a corporate center, "the Switzerland of the Atlantic." The care and craftsmanship that went into the creation of this work is obvious. This is literally a "Bermudaful" book. And do not forget to catch the sweetheart on page 17!