Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
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 twentieth 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Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed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.
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 twentieth 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.
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
Fantastic book! It really helped to explain the gravity of the situation and how ignorant everyone was about radiation
Author introduces the topic using understandable basic chemistry to make the relevant background data of atomic warfare readable. The true story displays arrogance of men with enterprise and ambition that were willing to, and did, sacrifice so many people, the environment, and gave the potential of so much more horrendous disaster. The author uses the best sources available, with heavily historical, factual recounts, which I always appreciate in him. Tough subject matter, good writing. Minus a minor point neggling at me about his using the term "cast of characters", for a true-life story, with real misfortune.
This is the story of the accident in Chernobyl. It tells the story, in depth, from multiple points of view. I enjoyed that it shared the position of the country at the time. Its hard to imagine the Soviet Union when you've never been in a situation like that, this helped me understand why it was such a big deal. Would things have changed if the Union had been more transparent about the accident in the first place? Also appreciated the after that had details about the "main characters" and what happened to them.
My heart goes out to everyone who suffered and is still suffering due to lack of a government wanting the truth to be told even prior to the making of this mess!
Ooph... This book was not for me.
It was definitely well written aaand oh so boring for about 2/3 of the way through. Fortunately, I was reading in tandem with the audiobook which was significantly less boring and yet it still drug ass.
What did I even learn that I haven't seen in a documentary?..
My brain just didn't want to absorb this. 🥲
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.