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Book Cover for: Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, Svetlana Alexievich

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

Svetlana Alexievich

Hardcover
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Reader Score

88%

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Critic Reviews

Great

Based on 6 reviews on

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The New York Times Best Seller
2016 & 2015 The New York Times Best Seller
Winner:ALA Notable Book -Nonfiction (2006)
Winner:National Book Critics Circle Award -Nonfiction (2005)
An account of the worst nuclear reactor accident in history from the 2015 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. Voices from Chernobyl is the first book to present personal accounts of the tragedy. Journalist Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown--from innocent citizens to firefighters to those called in to clean up the disaster--and their stories reveal the fear, anger, and uncertainty with which they still live. Composed of interviews in monologue form, Voices from Chernobyl is a crucially important work of immense force, unforgettable in its emotional power and honesty and a National Book Critics Circle Award winner.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
  • Publish Date: Jun 28th, 2005
  • Pages: 240
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.40in - 1.10in - 1.20lb
  • EAN: 9781564784018
  • Categories: • Russia - General• Eastern Europe - General• Disasters & Disaster Relief

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About the Author

Gessen, Keith: - Keith Gessen was born in Russia and educated at Harvard. He is a founding editor of n+1 and has written about literature and culture for Dissent, The Nation, The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books. He is the author of the novel All the Sad Young Literary Men.
Alexievich, Svetlana: - Svetlana Alexievich was born in the Ukraine and studied journalism at the University of Minsk. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including a prize from the Swedish PEN Institute for "courage and dignity as a writer." She won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2015.

More books by Svetlana Alexievich

Book Cover for: Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: Voces de Chernobil: Cronica del Futuro = Voices of Chernobyl, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: Last Witnesses (Adapted for Young Adults), Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: In Search of the Free Individual: The History of the Russian-Soviet Soul, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: La Guerra No Tiene Rostro de Mujer / The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in World War II, Svetlana Alexievich
Book Cover for: Últimos Testigos: Los Niños de la Segunda Guerra Mundial/ Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets: Los Niños de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Svetlana Alexievich

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: parhami@ece.ucsb.edu
parhami@ece.ucsb.edu
@BehroozParhami
1 year

I am a Distinguished Professor of Computer Engineering at UCSB, USA. My passions are science, tech, and equal rights, but I'll share other human stories too.

... Holes, Paul, 'Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases,' 2022. https://t.co/morWiF4u0g Alexievich, Svetlana (translated into English by Keith Gessen), 'Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster,' 1997. https://t.co/keDz7WHO5t [2/2] https://t.co/32J7SFIzXB

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Andrew F. Sullivan
Andrew F. Sullivan
@AFSulli
1 year

brutalist. The Marigold (@ECWPress) and The Handyman Method (w Nick Cutter @GalleryBooks) One vile task after another. https://t.co/xFK5X1LS9b

Crafting 'Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster', Svetlana Alexievich interviewed over 500 witnesses to true ruination. Layering a narrative with a patina of voices was part of my vision for The Marigold - a slow apocalypse drizzling out into the streets. https://t.co/BkNijWjJml

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Manga Mogura RE
Manga Mogura RE
@MangaMoguraRE
1 year

keeps digging deep for all the latest Manga news I'd be grateful for any support if you want to🙏 https://t.co/aVfwmu6Gwq https://t.co/pc8CR7Ki0K

The novel "Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl" by the Belarusian Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich will get a manga Adaption by Yuuta Kumagai (Ikusa no Ko - Oda Saburou Nobunaga Den) in the upcoming Young Animal issue 14/22023 out July, 14 https://t.co/8Moz4E7Te9

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl (Dalkey Archive) is a collage of oral testimony that turns into the psycho¬biography of a nation not shown on any map: the poisoned territory where live Belarusians, Ukrainians and Russians who are forever changed by the catastophe. The book - by this year's Nobelist - leaves radiation burns on the brain." -Julian Barnes, The Guardian, Best Books of the Year
"A chorus of fatalism, stoic bravery, and black, black humor is sounded in this haunting oral history . . . The result is an endelible X-ray of the Russian soul." -Publishers Weekly
"Shocking accounts of life in a poisoned world. And what quintessentially human stories these are, as each distinct voice expresses anger, fear, ignorance, stoicism, valor, compassion, and love. Alexievich put her own health at risk to gather these invaluable frontline testimonies, which she has transmuted into a haunting and essential work of literature that one can only hope documents a never-to-be-repeated catastrophe." -Booklist (Starred Review)
"Svetlana Alexievich's remarkable book, recording the lives and deaths of her fellow Belarussians, has at last made it into American bookstores. (...) Hers is a peerless collection of testimony." -Andrew Meier, The Nation
"Grim and grotesque, the stories accrete across the pages like the radionuclides lodged in the bodies of those who survived." --Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times Book Review
"Grim and grotesque, the stories accrete across the pages like the radionuclides lodged in the bodies of those who survived." -Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times Book Review

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: parhami@ece.ucsb.edu
parhami@ece.ucsb.edu
@BehroozParhami
1 year

I am a Distinguished Professor of Computer Engineering at UCSB, USA. My passions are science, tech, and equal rights, but I'll share other human stories too.

... Holes, Paul, 'Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases,' 2022. https://t.co/morWiF4u0g Alexievich, Svetlana (translated into English by Keith Gessen), 'Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster,' 1997. https://t.co/keDz7WHO5t [2/2] https://t.co/32J7SFIzXB

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: Andrew F. Sullivan
Andrew F. Sullivan
@AFSulli
1 year

brutalist. The Marigold (@ECWPress) and The Handyman Method (w Nick Cutter @GalleryBooks) One vile task after another. https://t.co/xFK5X1LS9b

Crafting 'Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster', Svetlana Alexievich interviewed over 500 witnesses to true ruination. Layering a narrative with a patina of voices was part of my vision for The Marigold - a slow apocalypse drizzling out into the streets. https://t.co/BkNijWjJml

twitter.com
See more