Midnight in Chernobyl (Unabridged)
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4.4 • 384 Ratings
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
One of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2019!
A New York Times Best Book of the Year
A Time Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner
From journalist Adam Higginbotham, the New York Times bestselling “account that reads almost like the script for a movie” (The Wall Street Journal)—a powerful investigation into Chernobyl and how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the history’s worst nuclear disasters.
Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering one of the 20th century’s greatest disasters. In the thirty years since then, 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 its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute.
Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a “riveting, deeply reported reconstruction” (Los Angeles Times) and a definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth.
“The most complete and compelling history yet” (The Christian Science Monitor), Higginbotham’s “superb, enthralling, and necessarily terrifying...extraordinary” (The New York Times) book is an indelible portrait of 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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
The Chernobyl disaster was a defining event of the 1980s, affecting everything from the future of nuclear power to the eventual fall of the Soviet Union. Yet for years, the truth about how it happened and why was shrouded in mystery—until, in his groundbreaking history, journalist Adam Higginbotham relayed the stories of people who had witnessed the event firsthand. With a reporter’s eye for detail, Higginbotham pieces together the engrossing story of how outsized ambitions, untested technology, and a crippling fear of failure set the stage for the infamous catastrophe. Listening to this dark tale is absolutely riveting, especially as we get closer and closer to that fateful day in 1986 when the reactor blew. Narrator Jacques Roy strikes the perfect balance between the story’s pulse-pounding, thriller-like elements and the real-life tragedy. The surprisingly complex truth behind this historical event makes for a fascinating listen.
Customer Reviews
Excellent book!
Great narration of an excellent, well researched and presented book!
Strong start - weak finish
A review that’s short and to the point: The topic itself is mystifying and this book does a very good job of bringing much of what was pushed into the dark to the light. By about 2/3 of the way through it became incredibly dull and monotonous. Overall, an important subject to learn about but it certainly could have been better. Giving it 3.5 out of 5.
Haunting and well-told
A great telling of the haunting accident at Chernobyl and a harrowing story of the lives affected.