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Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster | 
 enlarge | Author: Svetlana Alexievich
Creator: Keith Gessen
Publisher: Picador
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
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Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 131254
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.2 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312425848
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780312425845
ASIN: 0312425848
Publication Date: April 18, 2006
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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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 No Nukes July 1, 2005
Walter E. Bjorneby (Greeley CO USA)
30 out of 36 found this review helpful
READ THIS BOOK! First, I am a retired career military officer and veteran combat fighter pilot who once flew aircraft armed with nuclear weapons. This compilation of personal histories is heart-wrenching and soul-searching. The mostly free and honest recitations are emotionally searing. The first chapter brought tears to my eyes before I was half-through. These histories are also an indictment of the cover-your-tail, follow the party line, system of government and a stern warning that nuclear power must be under the closest of controls - forever. I finished the book about 1100PM but was unable to fall asleep until after 0130AM. I am, after reading this book, totally against the commercial use of atomic energy since the drive for profit must inevitably result in lowering of standards in maintenance and operational control as has already been manifested in, say, Three-Mile Island. I only wish I had the funds to send a copy of this book to every Congressperson. George Soros, are you there?
Walter E. Bjorneby, Lt/Col, USAF (Ret)
Mesmerizing and chilling May 4, 2005
M. Grigsby (Kansas City, KS USA)
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
This book is a translation of interviews with survivors 10 years after Chernobyl. The first-person descriptions of living in the "Zone" after the disaster, and the implications of living in radioactivity is chilling and compelling. The book is full of heartbreaking stories of Russian people who survived WWII but then were confronted with another disaster of unbelievable magnitude. I absolutely couldn't put this book down, and feel that it should be promoted as one of the best books of the year. As we are now approaching the 20th anniversary of this event, I keep wondering how many of those people interviewed in 1996 are still alive. This book deserves a huge audience!
20 Years Later and People Don't Understand The Human Impact. February 1, 2006
M. Paul (Connecticut)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Mankind can promote technology and advancement in the name of science and at the same time treat his fellow humans with contempt and dishonesty in this way. How is that possible? It can only be described as Satanic. Mankind dominating man to his own injury. The stories from these innocent bystanders have touched my heart. I have never cried after reading a book before this one. The first hand accounts of this terrible accident transports you to the towns, villages and families, like our own, which were and are still effected. The "Voices From Chernobyl" will echo in my head as I think of the place I live and look ahead to the future of my family. These people have touched my soul and only amplify the fact in my mind that the desire to live peaceful and happy lives belongs to everyone and no one has the right to foolishly remove that by disturbing the simple silent harmonies that are so fragile and exist within our world. I understand what these people really had to go through now. Thank you Svetlana Alexievich. An excellent book!
Deeply disturbing November 30, 2006
Stephen Balbach (Ashton, MD United States)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Occasionally I'll read first-hand accounts about human catastrophes in the modern world, such as Sudan or Rwanda or Katrina, because it offers a window into what I as a middle class American normally would never see or experience, hopefully making me a better and wiser person without becoming numb or a "dark tourist". Books are more subtle and rich than film and more rewarding in the end.
As an oral history this is a frightening experience (the term "experience" emphasized). Chernobyl has been largely hushed up and kept quiet, the scope of it is worse than most know or understand (occasionally we hear a few hundred or thousand people died and certain cancers are slightly up, don't believe it, much worse). Only about %5 of the nuclear material escaped so it was a minor accident on the scale of things. There is a %50 chance of another meltdown happening elsewhere in the world over the next 40 years (sourced in book). Had Chernobyl been a full meltdown much of Europe would be dieing off as we speak. 16 more Chernobyl-type reactors are still in operation (14 in Russia). As Alexievich says in her epitaph: "These people had already seen what for everyone else is still unknown. I felt like I was recording the future."
The disaster of Chernobyl is still going today, it never ended, it is like AIDS - it just keeps getting worse, there is no cure for radiation which lasts 100s of 1000s of years. The radiated material is finding its way outside of the "Zone" and spreading slowly around the world. Down the rivers into the seas, blown on dust, carried out by hand by bandits in the form of trucks and TV's and scrap metal sold to Asian scrap metal firms which build the goods we buy, grown in food and sold on the world market. I put this book down thinking two things: where can I buy a gieger counter and where can I buy iodine.
Alexievic is a fascinating person her books published around the world in over 19 languages; translated authors don't get big billing in the USA but she is a world-class author and pretty well known in Europe. The Stalinst-Soviet style government of Belorussia (her home country) is not sympathetic to independent journalists (they end up dead). She has a fairly detailed personal website (I can't post links on Amazon but Google search on her name).
sobering but wonderful May 2, 2006
Charlotte R. Barbercheck (Petoskey, MI United States)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have not yet finished this book but already it has had a profound affect upon me. At the time of the Chernobyl disaster I was only two months old so in that respect it is fascinating for me to read about something I had only heard about briefly in school textbooks or on the news. While it's interesting from the historical perspective, the human side is by far the most impacting aspect of this book.
There are so many instances and testimonies that break your heart. I can't shake the image of the soldier who gave his little son the hat he was wearing while cleaning up the site. The little boy was diagnosed with a brain tumor shortly thereafter. The fears and emotions of the people who live in Chernobyl are laid out here for all to read but it is done in a perfectly objective way. There is little commentary on the testimonials and that perhaps makes it all the more powerful.
The only downside of this book is that it can be extremely frustrating to read, not in any academic sense but in a moral sense. The radioactivity is like an infection for which there is no cure and for which there is little anyone can do. Yet, it still has an enormous effect on the future of not just the Ukraine and Belarus but of the world. Seeing as the twentieth anniversay (the half-life of uranium is 760 million years) of the disastor has just recently passed I feel it is all the more important for people to consider their views on nuclear power and whether we are harnassing something we cannot control.
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