Midnight in Chernobyl

De: Adam Higginbotham

Narrado por: Jacques Roy

One of AudioFile’s Best Audiobooks of 2019!

The definitive, dramatic untold story of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, based on original reporting and new archival research.

April 25, 1986 in Chernobyl was a turning point in world history. The disaster not only changed the world’s perception of nuclear power and the science that spawned it, but also our understanding of the planet’s delicate ecology. With the images of the abandoned homes and playgrounds beyond the barbed wire of the 30-kilometer Exclusion Zone, the rusting graveyards of contaminated trucks and helicopters, the farmland lashed with black rain, the event fixed for all time the notion of radiation as an invisible killer.

Chernobyl was also a key event in the destruction of the Soviet Union, and, with it, the United States’ victory in the Cold War. For Moscow, it was a political and financial catastrophe as much as an environmental and scientific one. With a total cost of 18 billion rubles - at the time equivalent to $18 billion - Chernobyl bankrupted an already teetering economy and revealed to its population a state built upon a pillar of lies.

The full story of the events that started that night in the control room of reactor number four of the V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Plant has never been told - until now. Through two decades of reporting, new archival information, and firsthand interviews with witnesses, journalist Adam Higginbotham tells the full dramatic story, including Alexander Akimov and Anatoli Dyatlov, who represented the best and worst of Soviet life; denizens of a vanished world of secret policemen, internal passports, food lines, and heroic self-sacrifice for the motherland.

Midnight in Chernobyl, award-worthy nonfiction that reads like sci-fi, shows not only the final epic struggle of a dying empire, but also the story of individual heroism and desperate, ingenious technical improvisation joining forces against a new kind of enemy.

©2019 Adam Higginbotham (P)2019 Simon & Schuster

How Little We Knew. Now We Do.

On April 28th, 1986 I remember watching the BBC news. It was announced that an incident had occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear plant. The announcer added that there had been 'few injuries' but everything was under control. Please note the date of the announcement, April 28th, a full two days after the disaster on April 26th.

The public all over the world had no idea the devastation, suffering and death that occurred as a result of one man's arrogance and a workforce so intimidated to question him as he was a representative of all that was good under the Communist regime.

Midnight in Chernobyl list out the cause and the resulting tragedy. Adam Higginbotham has done impeccable research for this informative yet easy to read book. It list the facts but you do not have to be a nuclear physicist in order to understand it. It puts a human face on the event including the 'blame game' between managers and the bravery of those doomed people who had to go and pick up the debris knowing full well that their days would come to an end very soon with unimaginable pain.

Often you get to the end of a book and wonder "where are they now?". The latter chapters does a full and thorough follow up. Some so sad however some so surprisingly good.

The narration is superb. I really do not think that they could have done better.

Great Story and Informative Too.

This book provides a start to end discussion of Chernobyl, from its design flaws, shoddy construction, poor management, to the meltdown, unpreparedness, deaths that followed, and the aftermath. While nuclear energy is potentially very dangerous, they way that the Soviets went about building this facility almost ensured its demise.

Brilliant!

I have read many books about Chernobyl but this one is by far the best! It will capture your interest and not let go. The narration is very good as well.

Excellent and informational.

it gets scientifically detailed, but the writing is very understandable. it is a bit slow to start with, but well worth keeping at it.

Captivating

For any fan of not fiction, this book is a wonderful telling of the story, the people, the incident, and outcomes of the significant disaster and turning point of the communist system and nuclear power in general. It was difficult to stop listening to this book.

WOW

The history and technical description of nuclear power in this book was informative and troubling. What the workers and citizens have,and continue to endure is heart wrenching.

WOW

this book was so interesting, enjoyed greatly...thank you for the education. jacques Roy thank you for reading this...excellent

Chernobyl - An Atomic Hell

This is a detailed account of the meltdown of the fourth nuclear powerplant at Chernobyl. A nightmare of modern times.

Fascinating and Very Scary

The tragedy at Chernobyl came very, very close to wiping out major cities and endangering millions. Government “experts” could not accept the terrible situation and nobody was sure how to avoid a melt down. Government officials kept a blackout on all bad news while citizens and local children were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. The book is a bit heavy on the tech but you will be riveted by the story.

A Gripping Read From Start to Finish

The author does a great job of explaining the history of nuclear power and the events that led up to the Chernobyl accident and the cleanup afterwards.