Midnight in Chernobyl

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 not only its own citizens, but all of humanity.
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Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to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 non-fiction 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.

In dimineata zilei de 26 aprilie 1986, reactorul numarul patru al statiei de energie atomica de la Cernobil a explodat, declansand cel mai grav dezastru nuclear din istorie. In cei treizeci de ani de atunci, Cernobil s-a adapostit in cosmarurile colective ale lumii: stenografie pentru ororile spectrale ale otravirii cu radiatii, pentru o tehnologie periculoasa care isi aluneca lesa, pentru fragilitatea ecologica si pentru ce se poate intampla atunci cand un om necinstit si neglijent. statul pune in pericol nu numai proprii cetateni, ci intreaga omenire.