| View Larger Image | Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster | Paperbackby Svetlana Alexievich (Author), Keith Gessen (Translator)
| List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $10.20 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Picador | | Page Count: | 256 Pages | | Publication Date: | April 18, 2006 | | Sales Rank: | 29,252th |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and 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. Comprised of interviews in monologue form, Voices from Chernobyl is a crucially important work, unforgettable in its emotional power and honesty. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 21 reviews)
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Outstanding first-person accounts but lacks elsewhere by Pword (Texas)  3 Stars
September 02, 2009
This latter part of this book is a gut-wrenching, incredible oral history of the victims and survivors and family members of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986, and the "author" deserves credit for a tremendous amount of work over three years gathering and recording these important personal stories for history.
However, the book needed some background about the disaster and some explanation of what actually occurred in the disaster to put all the stories into perspective. It also could benefit from some brief paragraphs explaining some of the things the survivors mention -- I was confused about times and dates and some of the terminology.
And the first few sections are very confusing because the dialog makes no sense. It would have been better paraphrased. I almost gave up reading this book but I'm glad I didn't because the second half stories are much more coherent and compelling.
I also would have appreciated having the ages of the narrators along with their names and affiliation before each story, not at the end.
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Must read by J. Solt (Boston)  5 Stars
August 29, 2009
I chose this book on a whim. I didn't really know much about what had happened in Chernobyl and my curiosity was stronger. The author really knows how to extract the stories out of these victims and gives them a voice, a human point of view. The heart-renching anecdotes are filled with disbelief, since it's hard to imagine living in a super toxic environment. In a way it is an eulogy for all those parents, citizens who worked in or near the plant, who gave their lives, involuntarily, to earn a living. Somebody had to do the dirty job.
It is amazing to see how that single event affected so many lives and it continues to do so today.
No matter what natonality you are, if you're 20 or 80, this book will move you.
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Very humbling book by Jen K (Depew NY (USA)) 5 Stars
August 10, 2009
If you ever pick up a book on the effects of what happened at Chernobyl, don't pass this one by. When I got this book, I could not put it down. The stories that we told was unimaginable. I couldn't believe how strong people had become during this event. When I was done with this book, it truely made me hug my children a little tighter from then on. It was so moving to me that I was making my whole family read it. I will never give this book up, it will always be in my collection. Amazing!!
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Amazing yet disturbing book. by Elizabeth Wykes (Indianapolis, IN USA) 5 Stars
July 13, 2009
This is one of my all-time favorite books. It is written EXTREMELY well. The individuals quoted in this book are excellent sources and come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Probably the most informative thing I've ever read on this subject. For a good companion, watch the film Chernobyl Heart which is not currently available on Amazon (as of July 12, 2009). This book will make you see things in a new light.
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Devastation Illuminated and Personalized by A. Hodge 5 Stars
July 11, 2008
The facts of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl trickled out from east to west slowly at first. With the publication of this book, the historian puts a megaphone to the voices of the people who lived through the initial disaster, and who continue to live it in various ways. This is an important book that should not be missed.
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SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| The Legacy of Chernobyl
by Zhores A. Medvedev (Author)
On the morning of April 26, 1986, a Soviet nuclear plant at Chernobyl (near Kiev) exploded, pouring radioactivity into the environment and setting off the worst disaster in the history of nuclear energy. Now a former Soviet scientist gives a comprehensive account of the catastrophe. Photographs.
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| Chernobyl: Confessions of a Reporter
by Igor Kostin (Photographer)
On April 26, 1986, Reactor #4 at the V. I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant near Chernobyl exploded, releasing 400 times more radioactive matter than the bombing of Hiroshima. Igor Kostin, then a reporter for the Novosti Agency, took the very first photograph of the accident, continuing to endure massive radiation overexposure to document the disaster for the International Atomic Energy Agency. For the next twenty years he persistently investigated the explosion's effects on mankind and the...
| | | The Truth About Chernobyl
by Grigori Medvedev (Author), Andrei Sakharov (Author)
Grigori Medvedev, a former chief engineer at Chernobyl, was commissioned by the Soviets to investigate the nuclear accident that took place on April 26, 1986. This is Medvedev's own minute-by-minute account of both the disaster and the cover-up.
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| Wormwood Forest: A Natural History of Chernobyl
by Mary Mycio (Author)
In 1986 when the Chernobyl nuclear reactor melted down, 135,000 people were evacuated. Almost twenty years later, the area remains a no-man’s land, with radiation too intense for people to live there safely. Amazingly, though, it is nevertheless home to a unique and extraordinary new ecosystem. When the explosion ripped through the Number Four reactor complex that fateful day, spewing flames and chunks of burning, radioactive material into the air, one of the world’s worst...
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| JOURNEY TO CHERNOBYL: ENCOUNTERS IN THE RADIOACTIVE ZONE
by Glenn Cheney (Author)
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