Book info

• Title Midnight in Chernobyl
• Author Adam Higginbotham
• Year 2019
• Genre Nonfiction

The story of Chernobyl is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth. Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the 1986 disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it first-hand. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, this book makes for a masterful non-fiction thriller.

Thoughts

This book is simply incredible. It’s meticulous and detailed and there’s plenty of science in there but somehow the author makes it brilliantly readable, you don’t want to put it down. At the heart, despite all the politics and technical detail, it’s a story about the people who made poor decisions, who were thrust into the heart of it through no fault of their own, who showed incredible courage in the face of so many unknowns.

It’s a long book, and it’s taken me a long time to get through it because you have to read every single word carefully, and take your time to appreciate it as you go through. It’s not a whip through and feel more knowledgeable, it’s a serious look at a terrifying incident that arguably the world still hasn’t learned from. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 / 5