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Chernobyl Prayer

Voices from Chernobyl

Svetlana Alexievich Anna Gunin Arch Tait

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English
Penguin
01 May 2016
A haunting history of the Chernobyl disaster by the winner of the Nobel prize in literature

On 26 April 1986 the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occured in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. While the official Soviet narrative downplayed the accident's impact, Svetlana Alexievich wanted to know how people understood it. She recorded hundreds of interviews with workers at the nuclear plant, refugees and resettlers, scientists and bureaucrats, crafting their monologues into a stunning oral history of the nuclear disaster. What their stories reveal is the fear, anger and uncertainty with which they still live but also a dark humour and desire to see the beauty of everyday life, including that of Chernobyl's new landscape. A chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, Chernobyl Prayer is a haunting masterpiece.

By:  
Translated by:   ,
Imprint:   Penguin
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 17mm
Weight:   224g
ISBN:   9780241270530
ISBN 10:   0241270537
Series:   Penguin Modern Classics
Pages:   304
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  College/higher education ,  ELT Advanced ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Svetlana Alexievich (Author) Svetlana Alexievich was born in Ivano-Frankovsk, Ukraine in 1948 and has spent most of her life in the Soviet Union and present-day Belarus, with prolonged periods of exile in Western Europe. Starting out as a journalist, she developed her own non-fiction genre which brings together a chorus of voices to describe a specific historical moment. Her works include The Unwomanly Face of War (1985), Zinky Boys (1990), Chernobyl Prayer (1997) and Second-Hand Time (2013). She has won many international awards, including the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time .

Reviews for Chernobyl Prayer: Voices from Chernobyl

Alexievich is both a mighty documentarian and a mighty artist -- Philip Gourevitch New Yorker Awarding the Nobel Prize for Literature to Sveltana Alexievich is a brilliant choice that recalibrates the status of non-fiction in the literary canon -- Arifa Akbar Independent Svetlana Alexievich is the voice of modern Russia... The news that she is the receiver of this year's Nobel prize in literature came as a rewarding surprise, not only because it reminds us that serious reporting is not dead in the Internet age, but also because it bestows a poetic quality to the journalistic endeavor -- Michael Skafidas Huffington Post


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