At the nearby park and at the playground, Kostya heard as much Russian as English.

Not that Keokuk was anything like wicked Sodom, or that Proust’s Charlus would have been tempted to settle in Benton Harbor, Mich.

The quake, which hit 30km west of the southern city of Christchurch, shook a wide area, with some residents saying buildings had collapsed and power was severed.