Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2018

Winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize 2019

'As moving as it is meticulously researched. . . a gripping read' - Viv Groskop, Observer

'A spellbinding narrative of human flaws and state deceptions. . . rightly praised as a classic' - Hannah Betts, Daily Telegraph

On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m., a reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine exploded. As the authorities struggled to comprehend what was happening, workers, engineers, firefighters, and local residents were left to fend for themselves. The explosion brought the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.

In Chernobyl, award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy draws on newly opened archives to recreate these events in all their drama. A minute-by-minute account of the heroes, culprits, and victims of a tragedy, Chernobyl is the first full account of a gripping, unforgettable Cold War story.

'A gripping story of the 1986 disaster and its aftermath. . . immerses the reader in the sweaty, nerve-shredding tension of the control room at Chernobyl on that indescribable night when human frailty and design failures combined with such lethal consequences' - Daniel Beer, Guardian

'Shocking ... almost Tolstoyan. His voice is human and tinged with nostalgia' - Roland Elliott Brown, Spectator

'Outstanding, vividly written, powerful narrative ... the first full-scale account of the world's worst nuclear disaster, one of the defining moments of the Cold War, told minute-by-minute' - Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times

'Unfolds like a classic tragedy ... compelling' - Julian Evans, Daily Telegraph

'Here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves' - Julie McDowall, The Times

Pages: 432, Dimensions: 12.8x12.8cm