Voices from ChernobylSvetlana Aelxievich
Voices from Chernobyl
by Svetlana Aelxievich · first published 2019
18mentions
11recommended by
18HN commenters
2015–2026first – last mentioned
61% recommend39% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Oral history built from hundreds of interviews with witnesses, victims and residents of the Chernobyl disaster. It offers a chilling, illuminating account of the human cost and the aftermath cover-up.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
…to illnesses attributed to radiation pollution from the Chernobyl disaster were recorded. The word "recorded" does a huge amount of obscuring work in that sentence. I thoroughly recommend the book "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster" by Svetlana Alexievich. After reading that, a double or triple digit number is simply not credible.
on “Is Nuclear Power Worth the Risk?” ↗If anyone enjoyed this, I can recommend Voices From Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich (who won the Nobel a few years ago). It's basically the same thing, but more and more in depth. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0312425848/ref=as_li_tl?...
on “Eye-witness stories from Chernobyl” ↗Highly recommend the book "Voices From Chernobyl" by Svetlana Alexievich (she won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature partially for this work), it is an illuminating account of the Belarusian struggle and subsequent cover-up of the aftermath of the Chernobyl…
on “A Famous Photo of Chernobyl’s Most Dangerous Radioactive Material (2016)” ↗A great - and chilling - read is Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_from_Chernobyl). It had a very strong impact when read in original Russian. Couple…
on “The Chernobyl Tragedy – From the Memoirs of Nikolai Ryzhkov” ↗I also recommend Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich, some of people the characters from the book are even present in the TV series.
on “Chernobyl Wildlife Forty Years On” ↗For those who don't know, Alexievich won last year's Pulitzer Prize for books such as "Voices from Chernobyl" and "Zinky Boys", an account of Russia's war in Afghanistan. She writes something close to non-fiction -- heavily edited oral histories of people who have survived disaster and war. The books are incredibly…
on “Unofficial Stories: Conversation with Svetlana Alexievich” ↗I hope more people will become aware of her book "Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster". A sad witness of a human tragedy. http://www.amazon.com/Voices-Chernobyl-History-Nuclear-Disas...
on “The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015” ↗Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl has many stories like this, highly recommended reading if you want to know more about the incident
on “A Nuclear Jet at Chernobyl Around 21:23:45 UTC on April 25, 1986” ↗…recommend reading book by Aleksievich which is a written down summary of 500 individual discussions with first hand eye witnesses/victims of the event. Highly recommended. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voices_from_Chernobyl
on “Scene report from the Chernobyl Zone” ↗How many people live in the Chernobyl exclusion zone? Svetlana Alexievich interviewed some of “The Zone’s” residents in her excellent book Voices From Chernobyl. It’s not a fun place to live, unless having all your teeth fall out is fun.
on “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site” ↗Best book of books - 1984 Fiction - Ender's Game Horror - Voices from Chernobyl. I'm currently read it. I need a pause on every 2-3 pages to refresh my mind. Biography - "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town". This is only Grisham book that wasn't fiction and based…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗I do refuse to. I understand the statistics favor fission's overall safety record, but I've read Voices from Chernobyl[0] and I'm not okay with the costs of what happens when control is lost / the facility is subjected to violence. I'm not okay with how long an area is uninhabitable after a major contamination, and how…
on “Renewables supplied 65% of new US utility-scale generating capacity in Q1 2023” ↗Reading Voices from Chernobyl changed my opinion on nuclear. The potential human cost is so great it doesn’t seem worth it. One other way of thinking about the issue is this: what would you consider a safe power plant? How about…
on “Former nuclear leaders: Say ‘no’ to new reactors” ↗…mentioned that she has been working on this book for 3 years now and she wants the topic to be part of her work. http://www.tol.org/client/article/8060-a-writer-from-a-crack... Fortunately I can order 'Voices from Chernobyl' and 'War Does Not Have a Woman's Face' in paper format (only), just as well as in a way it makes the stories more memorable for me then the dead and cold e-surrogate.
on “The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015” ↗The baby thing is from an interview with the firefighters wife in the Nobel Prize winning book Voices from Chernobyl. I dont remember how its depicted in the series, but in the book, it is clear that this is the woman's personal belief
on “Chernobyl Disaster – The Legasov Tapes” ↗