Congrats to Nobel Prize Winner Svetlana Alexievich!

Huge congratulations to Svetlana Alexievich, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” — Nobel Prize Press Release

On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. VOICES FROM CHERNOBYL: The Oral History of the Nuclear Disaster is the first book to present personal accounts of the tragedy. Journalist Svetlana Alexievich interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown—from innocent citizens to firefighters to those called in to clean up the disaster—and their stories reveal the fear, anger, and uncertainty with which they still live. Comprised of interviews in monologue form, VOICES FROM CHERNOBYL bears witness to a tragedy and its aftermath in a book that is as unforgettable as it is essential.

Winner of the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award

Praise for VOICES FROM CHERNOBYL

“Seen through the eyes of those who lived through it, real-life Chernobyl begins to seem like a nightmare, with feral cats who hunt humans in packs and children born missing fingers—or worse….The stories accrete across the pages like the radionuclides lodged in the bodies of those who survived.”
— The New York Times Book Review

“Shocking accounts of life in a poisoned world. And what quintessentially human stories these are, as each distinct voice expresses anger, fear, ignorance, stoicism, valor, compassion, and love. Alexievich put her own health at risk to gather these invaluable frontline testimonies, which she has transmuted into a haunting and essential work of literature that one can only hope documents a never-to-be-repeated catastrophe.” ― Booklist, starred review