Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster

by Adam Higginbotham Narrated by Jacques Roy

Overview

One of AudioFile's Best Audiobooks of 2019!

A New York Times Best Book of the Year
A Time Best Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner
One of NPR's Best Books of 2019

Journalist Adam Higginbotham's definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster-and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century's greatest disasters.

Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history's worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful nonfiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth.

Midnight in Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will-lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.

Editorial Reviews

JUNE 2019 - AudioFile

Jacques Roy’s nuanced performance of Higginbotham’s harrowing audiobook keeps listeners deeply engaged. In 1986, the Russian nuclear plant at Chernobyl failed. The result was a disaster of a global scale, with the details surrounding the event unclear until now. Many characters are involved up and down the chain of command—from the technical staff at the plant all the way up to President Gorbachev. Higginbotham’s detailed account of the moment-to-moment events of the disaster are engrossing, including the decisions not to evacuate the surrounding city right away up through eventual plans to seal off the site by any means necessary. Roy’s masterful narration enhances this stark and terrifying account of one of the worst disasters in human history. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2019 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

A masterpiece of reporting and storytelling that puts us on the ground for one of the most important events of the twentieth century. Adam Higginbotham opens a world nearly impossible to penetrate, then finds truths inside we weren’t supposed to discover. As readers, we could not hope for a more thrilling and visceral adventure. As citizens of the world, we ignore Midnight in Chernobyl at our peril.”—Robert Kurson, New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers and Rocket Men

“Adam Higginbotham’s Midnight at Chernobyl is a superb account of the catastrophic accident that occurred in the No 4 reactor of the Cherobyl nuclear power station in 1986. Higginbotham’s research is thorough and enlightening; much has emerged about what really happened following the fall of the Soviet Union. An experienced journalist, he makes the complex historical, political, technical and human aspects of this dramatic story intelligible. His book a pleasure to read.”—Piers Paul Read

JUNE 2019 - AudioFile

Jacques Roy’s nuanced performance of Higginbotham’s harrowing audiobook keeps listeners deeply engaged. In 1986, the Russian nuclear plant at Chernobyl failed. The result was a disaster of a global scale, with the details surrounding the event unclear until now. Many characters are involved up and down the chain of command—from the technical staff at the plant all the way up to President Gorbachev. Higginbotham’s detailed account of the moment-to-moment events of the disaster are engrossing, including the decisions not to evacuate the surrounding city right away up through eventual plans to seal off the site by any means necessary. Roy’s masterful narration enhances this stark and terrifying account of one of the worst disasters in human history. S.P.C. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2019 Best Audiobook © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170456413
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	02/12/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	554,655

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