Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster (Russian: Чернобыльская молитва, romanizedChernobylskaya molitva, lit.'Chernobyl Prayer'), published as Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future in the United Kingdom, is a book about the Chernobyl disaster by the Belarusian Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich. At the time of the disaster (April 1986), Alexievich was a journalist living in Minsk, the capital of what was then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Alexievich interviewed more than 500 eyewitnesses, including firefighters, liquidators (members of the cleanup team), politicians, physicians, physicists, and ordinary citizens over a period of 10 years. The book relates the psychological and personal tragedy of the Chernobyl accident, and explores the experiences of individuals and how the disaster affected their lives.[1]

  • Voices from Chernobyl
  • Chernobyl Prayer
AuthorSvetlana Alexievich
Original titleЧернобыльская молитва
LanguageRussian
PublisherOstozhʹe
Publication date
1997
OCLC39281739
Author Svetlana Alexievich

Chernobyl Prayer was first published in Russian in 1997; a revised, updated edition was released in 2013. The American translation was awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction.[2]

Adaptations edit

The HBO television miniseries Chernobyl often relies on the memories of Pripyat locals, as told by Svetlana Alexievich in her book.[3]

Editions edit

  • Alexievich, Svetlana (2016). Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future. Translated by Bunin, Anna; Tait, Arch. Penguin Modern Classics. ISBN 978-0241270530.
  • Alexievich, Svetlana; Gessen, Keith (2005). Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of the Nuclear Disaster. Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 1-56478-401-0.

See also edit

References edit