Midnight in Chernobyl: The Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster
Written by Adam Higginbotham
Narrated by Jacques Roy
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
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Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to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.
Editor's Note
Nightmarish retelling…
Read this after you binge HBO’s “Chernobyl.” You haven’t heard the horrifying details of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown so thrillingly or nightmarishly as in this gripping account from journalist Adam Higginbotham. The chain of human errors and the systemic secrecy that led to this disaster are the heart of the book, and much more frightening than the radioactivity.
Adam Higginbotham
Adam Higginbotham has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, and Smithsonian. He is the author of Midnight in Chernobyl, which was the winner of the William E. Colby Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, and Challenger: A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space. He lives with his family in New York City.
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Reviews for Midnight in Chernobyl
410 ratings18 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very thorough. Humanizes the actors while presenting the technical details effectivly. Starts from the very beginning of the origin of the RBMK reactor & the development of the site. The narrator also does an excellent job.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really thorough. Gave depth & personality to the many people involved. Follows from before the reactor was built to the current (as of writing) situation of people, places, etc.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Superb account of what happened at Chernobyl and it’s effect on the Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and how its effects reverberates today throughout the world. Well written and insightful, echoing the revelatory work or Sinclair Lewis. Not to be missed!
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A superb journalistic account coming from an exhaustive, detailed investigation of events.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Amazing book a must read for those who wish to learn about this event
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Unbelievable... Riveting... Tragic... This piece of nonfiction masterfully weaves the history, science, politics, and humanity of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A powerful, well written novel about the world’s worst nuclear disaster!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great book and the narration was good. Recommend this one.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very interesting book. I highly recommend it. Read it after watching the HBO miniseries!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very thorough account of the accident at Chernobyl. Writing was a bit dry at times, but that could also have been due to the monotone narrator. Would recommend.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was very well written! A lot of facts and very eye opening!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Really heavy read that was so well narrated and researched. The disaster at Chernobyl taught us so many lessons about what happens when we do not fully understand nuclear power, yet there's still so far to go.
I think I would have liked to see some of the more technical information in the first two chapters broken up within the following chapters of the actual events. Might have made it more accessible cause it was a little bit slow to start. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent narration and amazing story! Even if you aren’t a history buff, this book is still engaging and exciting!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating on multiple levels -the science behind the radiation, the USSR government structure and the personal stories.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Could've been cut by about half... not as engaging as I would've liked.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book inspired the HBO series Chernobyl and it really fleshes out the story. Really engaging listen.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great historical account, gives accurate reviews backed up by different sources of information.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Well-written book that I really enjoyed. Better then the tv series.