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Voices from Chernobyl / Svetlana Alexievich ; translation and preface by Keth Gessen.
LIBRA Special TD186.5.B35 A4413 2005
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Van Pelt Library TD186.5.B35 A4413 2005
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Aleksievich, Svetlana, 1948-
- Standardized Title:
- Tchernobylskaïa molitva. English.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobylʹ, Ukraine, 1986--Personal narratives.
- Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobylʹ, Ukraine, 1986.
- Chernobyl Nuclear Accident, Chornobylʹ, Ukraine, 1986--Health aspects--Belarus.
- Belarusians--Interviews.
- Belarusians.
- Belarusians--Health and hygiene.
- Genre:
- Interviews.
- Personal narratives.
- Penn Provenance:
- Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)
- Physical Description:
- x, 240 pages ; 21 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Place of Publication:
- Normal, Ill. : Dalkey Archive, 2005.
- Language Note:
- Translation of: Tchernobylskaïa molitva.
- Summary:
- On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred in Chernobyl and contaminated as much as three quarters of Europe. Although the Soviet government claims that only 31 people died as a result, the aftermath of the event is astounding. Over 485 villages are lost, and approximately 2.1 million people (including 700,000 children) live on contaminated land. There is no official record of how many thousands have died, but thousands of children have been born with catastrophic birth defects. Countless others suffer ongoing health problems resulting from their exposure to radiation.
- Voices from Chernobyl is the first book to present personal accounts of what happened to the people of Belarus, and the fear, anger, and uncertainty that they still live with. In order to give voice to their experiences, Svetlana Alexievich-a journalist by trade who now suffers from an immune deficiency developed while researching this book-interviewed hundreds of people affected by the meltdown: from innocent citizens, to firefighters, to those called in to clean up the disaster.
- Voices from Chernobyl is a crucial document of a disaster and how the government has masked its seriousness, making the event even more tragic through deception and lies. Presenting her interviews in monologue form, Alexievich gives readers a harrowing view inside the minds of those affected, untempered by government rhetoric; the reader is left with the shattering pain of living through such an event and its aftermath.
- Contents:
- Prologue: A Solitary Human Voice 5
- Part 1 The Land of the Dead
- On Why We Remember 25
- About What Can Be Talked about with the Living and the Dead 27
- About a Whole Life Written down on Doors 34
- By Those Who Returned 36
- About What Radiation Looks Like 50
- About a Song without Words 53
- About a Homeland 54
- About How a Person Is Only Clever and Refined in Evil 64
- Soldiers' Chorus 67
- Part 2 The Land of the Living
- About Old Prophecies 85
- About a Moonlit Landscape 88
- About a Man Whose Tooth Was Hurting When He Saw Christ Fall 90
- About a Single Bullet 96
- About How We Can't Live without Chekhov and Tolstoy 104
- About War Movies 109
- A Scream 118
- About a New Nation 119
- About Writing Chernobyl 126
- About Lies and Truths 133
- People's Chorus 143
- Part 3 Amazed by Sadness
- About What We Didn't Know: Death Can Be So Beautiful 155
- About the Shovel and the Atom 158
- About Taking Measurements 165
- About How the Frightening Things in Life Happen Quietly and Naturally 167
- About Answers 174
- About Memories 177
- About Loving Physics 179
- About Expensive Salami 185
- About Freedom and the Dream of an Ordinary Death 187
- About the Shadow of Death 193
- About a Damaged Child 197
- About Political Strategy 199
- By a Defender of the Soviet Government 205
- About Instructions 206
- About the Limitless Power One Person Can Have over Another 210
- About Why We Love Chernobyl 217
- Children's Chorus 221
- A Solitary Human Voice 225
- In Place of an Epilogue 239.
- Local Notes:
- Gotham Book Mart Collection copy has dustjacket retained.
- ISBN:
- 1564784010
- OCLC:
- 57201497
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