Chernobyl
History of a Tragedy
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Chernobyl
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Narrated by:
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Leighton Pugh
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By:
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Serhii Plokhy
About this listen
Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize
'An insightful and important book, that often reads like a good thriller, and that exposes the danger of mixing powerful technology with irresponsible politics' - Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens
'As moving as it is painstakingly researched. . . a cracking read' - Viv Groskop, Observer
The gripping story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, from an acclaimed historian and writer
On the morning of 26 April 1986 Europe witnessed the worst nuclear disaster in history: the explosion of a reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Soviet Ukraine. The outburst put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation. In the end, less than five percent of the reactor's fuel escaped, but that was enough to contaminate over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.
In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy recreates these events in all of their drama, telling the stories of the firefighters, scientists, engineers, workers, soldiers, and policemen who found themselves caught in a nuclear Armageddon and succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible: extinguishing the nuclear inferno and putting the reactor to sleep. While it is clear that the immediate cause of the accident was a turbine test gone wrong, Plokhy shows how the deeper roots of Chernobyl lay in the nature of the Soviet political system and the flaws of its nuclear industry. A little more than five years later, the Soviet Union would fall apart, destroyed from within by its unsustainable communist ideology and the dysfunctional managerial and economic systems laid bare in the wake of the disaster.
A poignant, fast paced account of the drama of heroes, perpetrators, and victims, Chernobyl is the definitive history of the world's worst nuclear disaster.
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Critic reviews
What listeners say about Chernobyl
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ian Dawson
- 17-06-19
A must have in library
If your interested in Chernobyl at all this is a must very deep and good look at what happened
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Wufei
- 07-03-21
Exciting, thoughtful and worrying
The story of Chernobyl is very well told and presented. Although there is minor focus on the event itself, there is an thorough in-depth description of the political and government system behind the accident between Urksine and Russia, and a more worrying side view of the future to come.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul Dettmann
- 23-01-20
Compelling Study of a 1980s Icon
Loved every minute of this. it's a lesson on chaos, mismanagement, politics and human nature. Could be read alongside any book about the Challenger disaster which happened a few weeks earlier. The West is not perfect either.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MR
- 23-05-19
The narrator can't pronounce "nuclear"
First of all, this is a stunning piece of work. The level or research, detail and clarity in the storytelling is incredible. To be able to cover the context, the technicalities, the human stories and the geopolitical and historical implications of the Chernobyl disaster in one, gripping text is an admirable achievement and I would recommend this book to anyone.
There is a "but" though, and this might seem like a very pedantic thing to say; but how could they have picked someone to narrate this book, who cannot pronounce the word "Nuclear"? The word is in every other paragraph!
Surely at some point in the process (if not in an audition but at least in the first recording session), once you've heard "Nucular", "Nuculalalar", "Nuclurar" and "Nuclear" used interchangeably, you'll call "pause" and ask the guy to go and practice a bit more? It's indescribably annoying and almost ruined the book for me. As it was, every time the narrator mangled the word (which he does 50-60% of the time), a voice in my head silently screamed "NUCLEAR" in protest. It's like listening to a piece of music being played by an orchestra with one particularly loud instrument out of tune. Every time you hear the bum note you wince.
I'd recommend this for the subject matter, the quality of the material and the skill with which the story has been written. Just be prepared for the possibility that you'll spend the many hours you'll spend listening to this book intensely annoyed with the narrator (who is otherwise excellent).
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Stuart
- 10-06-19
Fantastic but Conflicting information: update required
After watching the brilliant TV serialisation of the disaster on Sky. I wanted to know in more detail what occurred both politically and on a humanitarian level. This book does a fine job of informing the reader. Unfortunately there is a conflict of information in Chapter 13 (p207 kindle book) regarding a team of divers tasked with shutting off a group of valves below the reactor. The written version and the TV series tells us the team of divers miraculously survived the successful mission but the audio narration tells us they all died of radiation exposure weeks after completing the task. In a modern world dominated by the use of the word fake news, would it be too much to ask that the editors check the cohesion of both written and audio versions in respect for the men and families involved in a task that most definitely saved the lives of all future generations living in the region outside the 30km exclusion zone. Thank you....
I urge anyone believing that nuclear power is the answer to humanities energy requirements please read this book.
All biological life could be wiped out with a nuclear disaster even marginally larger than that at Chernobyl. A mere 5% of the 250 pound uranium was released into the air. The remaining unstable fuel that has a deadly half-life is 24000 years sits in a newly completed sarcophagus with a design life of 100 years......
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Sock Monkey
- 27-11-24
Very thorough history of the Chernobyl disaster
Overall a great listen. Very in-depth. The only thing I wouldn't have missed was the many radiation readings in several scales.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Interested in Books
- 06-06-19
Great book, but...
You had one job.
There are many people who can’t pronounce the word nuclear, and instead say something that sounds a bit like newkiller.
No big deal in day to day life, but maybe when you choose someone to read a book about a nuclear energy disaster, and have to hear it MISPRONOUNCED EVERY THIRTY SECONDS...
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17 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Anduko101
- 01-10-21
Amazing, highly detailed and in depth.
I really got this because I enjoyed the mini series. It was fascinating to see how events really played out without have to translate the facts into a TV drama. It's quite a bit different from Chenobyl the 6 part TV series. Well worth a listen if such things grip you.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- John J
- 21-10-21
Good book, mixed narration
Well written, but it seems strange to choose a narrator that cannot pronounce “nuclear” for a book on Chernobyl, and that mispronunciation becomes distracting.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Stephen Ostridge
- 22-07-19
So In Depth
Perfect , I'm So Eager To Go And Explore Myself , This Book Made Me Feel Like I Was There
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