Midnight in Chernobyl - Adam Higginbotham

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER


'Superb, enthralling and necessarily terrifying . . . every step feels
spring-loaded with tension... extraordinary.' The New York Times

The story of Chernobyl is more complex, more human, and more terrifying
than the Soviet myth. Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and
compelling narrative which brings the 1986 disaster to life through the eyes
of the men and women who witnessed it first-hand. Drawing on hundreds of
hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well
as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified
archives, this book makes for a masterful non-fiction thriller.

Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of
the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a
dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for
what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers not only its
own citizens, but all of humanity. It is a story that has long remained in
dispute, clouded from the beginning in secrecy, propaganda, and
misinformation.

Midnight In Chernobyl is an
indelible portrait of history's worst nuclear disaster, of human resilience
and ingenuity and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural
world to his will - lessons which, in the face of climate change and other
threats - remain not just vital but necessary.
Now,
Higginbotham brings us closer to the truth behind this colossal tragedy.

'Tells the story of the disaster and its gruesome aftermath with
thriller-like flair . . . wonderful and chilling ... written with skill and
passion.' The Observer

'An invaluable contribution to
history.' Serhii Plokhy, Evening
Standard

LONGLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE
2020