I picked up this book after watching the HBO Chernobyl series (which is based on this book). One of the things that the series didn’t capture but the book did was the attitudes of Old Russia about winning the War (WWII) and the parallels they tried to draw between Chernobyl and the War. Some viewed Chernobyl as fighting a war, others thought the government didn’t view it that way enough. Also not captured was the Party loyalty, it was striking that a Party employee refused to evacuate his small children because it could incite panic and now they are sick. One interviewee called the atom Russia’s religion. Even if you watched the series, I recommend this book, it is all personal interviews with people who experienced Chernobyl and the prose is just beautiful.

“What should I tell you? Death is the fairest thing in the world. No one’s ever gotten out of it. The earth takes everyone—the kind, the cruel, the sinners. Aside from that, there’s no fairness on earth. I worked hard and honestly my whole life. But I didn’t get any fairness. God was dividing things up somewhere, and by the time the line came to me there was nothing left.”