Chernobyl cover art

Chernobyl

The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Chernobyl

By: Serhii Plokhy
Narrated by: Ralph Lister
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £16.36

Buy Now for £16.36

A Chernobyl survivor and New York Times bestselling author delivers the definitive history of the worst nuclear accident in history.

“The most comprehensive and convincing history of Chernobyl yet to appear in English.” ―Financial Times

On the morning of April 26, 1986, a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. The outburst put the region on the brink of nuclear annihilation and contaminated over half of Europe with radioactive fallout. In Chernobyl, Serhii Plokhy follows 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 inferno and putting the reactor to sleep. As Plokhy convincingly argues, the disaster was not just the result of a turbine test gone wrong, but also the failure of the Soviet political system and the prioritization of economic development over humanitarian concern. Chernobyl is the definitive history of the nuclear disaster, but also an urgent call to action by one of its survivors.

 Eastern Engineering Europe Physics Russia Science
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

"A masterful account of how the USSR's bureaucratic dysfunction, censorship, and impossible economic targets produced the disaster and hindered the response."—New York Review of Books
"Gripping, meticulously researched...[Mr. Plokhy] mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system and the arrogance of its apparatchiks. But the fact that he grew up fewer than 500 kilometers south of Chernobyl probably accounts for his vividly empathetic descriptions of the people on the ground-the plant managers and employees, the firefighters, soldiers and others-who risked their lives to contain the damage."—Wall Street Journal
"The bare outline of the Chernobyl fire and the Soviet silence have been well covered...Mr. Plokhy, who directs the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard, adds much detail to the...construction that caused the failure, and the false assignment of blame to operating engineers...[His] most telling disclosures deal with how the Soviet subterfuges played a major role in Ukraine's decision to become an independent nation once the Soviet Union disintegrated."—Washington Times
"A lucid account of how the Soviet mania for nuclear power combined with endemic shoddiness in the industrial sector and near-paranoid habits of state secrecy led to the 1986 disaster...The most comprehensive and convincing history of Chernobyl yet to appear in English."—Financial Times
"The first comprehensive history of the Chernobyl disaster...here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves."—Julie McDowall, Times
"A work of deep scholarship and powerful stroytelling. Plokhy is the master of the telling detail."—Victory Sebestyen, Sunday Times

"Compelling...Plokhy's well-paced narrative plunges the reader into the sweaty, nervous tension of the Chernobyl control room on the fateful night when human frailty and design flaws combined to such devastating effect."—Guardian
"Plokhy's book...sustains a tone of thoughtful observation that is neither too detached nor heavily invested in a particular agenda... [He] delves deeper into the political fallout of Chernobyl, which played a significant role in the break-up of the Soviet Union."—New Statesman
"Haunting...Plokhy's...voice is humane and inflected with nostalgia. His Chernobyl and Prypiat emerge vividly-as perhaps all disaster-afflicted cities must-as shattered idylls."—Spectator
"Plokhy recounts the circumstances of the accident and its aftermath in painstaking detail...He tells the story with great assurance and style...A fierce and at times personal indictment of the ideology, bureaucracy and overconfidence of the Soviet system, as well as a strident condemnation of all modern states that continue to pursue military or economic objectives to the detriment of their populations and the environment."— Literary Review
No reviews yet