 | |
| Author | Svetlana Alexievich |
|---|---|
| Original title | Чернобыльская молитва |
| Language | Russian |
| Publisher | Ostozhʹe |
| Publication date | 1997 |
| OCLC | 39281739 |
Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster (Russian: Чернобыльская молитва, romanized: Chernobylskaya molitva, lit. 'Chernobyl Prayer'), published as Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future in the United Kingdom, is a book about the Chernobyl disaster by the Belarusian Nobel Laureate Svetlana Alexievich. At the time of the disaster (April 1986), Alexievich was a journalist living in Minsk, the capital of what was then the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. Alexievich interviewed more than 500 eyewitnesses, including firefighters, liquidators (members of the cleanup team), politicians, physicians, physicists, and ordinary citizens over a period of 10 years. The book relates the psychological and personal tragedy of the Chernobyl accident, and explores the experiences of individuals and how the disaster affected their lives.[1]
Chernobyl Prayer was first published in Russian in 1997; a revised, updated edition was released in 2013. The American translation was awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction.[2]
Adaptations
The HBO television miniseries Chernobyl often relies on the memories of Pripyat locals, as told by Svetlana Alexievich in her book.[3]
A manga adaptation of the book, drawn by Yuuta Kumagai, and supervised by Tetsuji Imanaka and Kazunobu Gotou is published in the bi-weekly Young Animal magazine, having 3 volumes as of February of 2025.
The 1999 English edition of Voices from Chernobyl (Aurum Press), translated by Antonina W. Bouis, was also the principal source for Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl, a long poem in multiple voices, which received the Arvon Daily Telegraph International Poetry Prize.[4] This poetry was later the basis of the documentary film Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl by Phil Grabsky and David Bickerstaff.[5]
Editions
- Alexievich, Svetlana (2016). Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future. Translated by Gunin, Anna; Tait, Arch. Penguin Modern Classics. ISBN 978-0241270530.
- Alexievich, Svetlana; Gessen, Keith (2005). Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of the Nuclear Disaster. Dalkey Archive Press. ISBN 1-56478-401-0.
- Alexievich, Svetlana (1999). Voices from Chernobyl. Translated by Antonina W. Bouis. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 9781854106490.
See also
References
- Matthews, Robert (2006-08-01). "Book Reviews". Journal of Nuclear Medicine. 47 (8): 1389–1390. ISSN 0161-5505.
- "Voices from Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievich". Complete Review. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
- "The real Chernobyl: HBO's hit miniseries is ending, and here's how its characters compare to their real-life counterparts". Meduza. 28 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
- Petrucci, Mario (2004). Heavy Water: A Poem for Chernobyl. London: Enitharmon Press. ISBN 1900564343.
- "Heavy Water: A Film for Chernobyl". Film Affinity. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
online listing for the documentary film directed by Phil Grabsky and David Bickerstaff.