Voices From Chernobyl (Lannan Selection)

The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster

by Svetlana Aleksievich, Svetlana Alexievich

Hardcover, 240 pages

English language

Published April 30, 2005 by Dalkey Archive Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-56478-401-8

View on OpenLibrary

(23 reviews)

5 editions

dznz@books.theunseen.city reviewed Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Aleksievich

Review of 'Voices from Chernobyl' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Pretty incredible work. If you saw Chernobyl, the series, this is what the human stories were based on.

Ikwezi reviewed Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Aleksievich

Review of 'Voices from Chernobyl' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The author of this book is currently the last member of the opposition leadership still in Belarus, because time is a flat circle

GG reviewed Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Aleksievich

Review of 'Voices from Chernobyl' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Excellent companion piece for those who have read “Midnight in Chernobyl” or watched the HBO miniseries. Might be tough to follow for those unfamiliar with the details of the disaster.

Matthew M. Conroy reviewed Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Aleksievich

Review of 'Voices from Chernobyl' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Excellent. The first piece by itself is amazingly moving and awful - read that if nothing else.

I think a lot of the pieces would be helped by having more footnotes to explain various references. I often felt like I didn't have a good sense of the context, since much of the writing is so very personal.

Bastian Greshake Tzovaras reviewed Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Aleksievich

Review of 'Voices from Chernobyl' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I've already read my fair share of bleak and depressing books this year, but for me this is an aspirant for the most horrifying book read so far. Over three years Alexievich interviewed a large number of people directly involved with the disaster of Chernobyl, e.g. people living there, first response firemen, liquidators, physicists, politicians et al. Those interviews are given in the book as plain but powerful monologues.

I read the book virtually in a single session over one evening, as it's pretty captivating. At the same time it's so emotionally taxing that you may want to take a short break and go for a walk, especially at times when the tears make reading any further hard anyway (no, not only because they shot the dogs)… For some example quotes check out this review, which has a pretty good selection, covering many of the different types of despair …