Midnight in Chernobyl (Unabridged)
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4.4 • 288 Ratings
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
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
One of NPR’s Best Books of 2019
Journalist Adam Higginbotham’s definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster—and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters.
Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst nuclear disaster. 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Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful nonfiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth.
Midnight in Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, 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.
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
About that preview
The preview consists of a reading of the book’s dramatis personae. Is a 5 minute litany of names and roles really the best way to convince someone to buy this book??
Great Storytelling
Adam did an excellent job weaving us through the lives of those who affected by Chernobyl.
The best account of the disaster available to read.
This book highlights at all, everything from how, to why, and everything in between. The author does a fantastic job of researching and finding out every detail of the disaster in 1986. The book is a little slow to start, but once you get into it it is a fantastic novel. I really truly believe that this is something that everybody should read, and this book should be read in the public school systems so that people can be more educated about nuclear power as a whole and what effects it can have. This is a strong novel with a lot of factual research in it’s backing. A definite must read
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