A TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR

What if Chernobyl was just the beginning?

The acclaimed winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize returns to Chernobyl to tell the gripping story of thirty-five days of war

On 24 February 2022, the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, armoured vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. It was the most direct way for them to reach the capital - and an extraordinarily reckless plan after the disaster that had taken place there three decades earlier. Russian occupation of the plant had begun. It would last thirty-five days.

Closely reported and narrated from multiple perspectives, this is the story of the Ukrainians who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days to spare the world a new nuclear accident. We meet Valentyn Heiko, the foreman who had also been there for the clean-up of the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and turned sixty during the occupation; plant workers who found a way to celebrate International Women's Day despite all odds; Russian officers who had no knowledge of nuclear reactors; and four stalkers who were caught in the middle and stood in for the overworked cook.

Gripping and unforgettable, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in an unprecedented time, when plant workers are left to fight on their own while the world holds its breath. In a book that reads like a thriller, Serhii Plokhy tells a remarkable story about human nature, uncertainty and courage.

About the Author
Serhii Plokhy is the author of Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize and the Pushkin House Book Prize, and the New York Times bestseller The Gates of Europe. His many acclaimed books, including The Russo-Ukrainian War, Nuclear Folly and Atoms and Ashes, have been translated into over a dozen languages. He is Professor of History at Harvard University where he also serves as Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.

Reviews
Brilliant... Plokhy is uniquely qualified to write this book... an extended and deeply informed piece of reportage, that raises some fundamental questions about nuclear power plant safety in wartime... Out of this tense situation Plokhy draws a parable for intelligent opposition to occupation -- Roger Boyes * The Times *
An inside account of how nuclear power facilities have become a terrifying element of the current battlefield... with professorial care, and the intermittent pace of a thriller... Plokhy was fated to tell this story -- Tim Adams * Observer *
Gripping and unsettling -- Pat Carty * Irish Times *
Chernobyl Roulette compellingly chronicles the singular courage and selflessness of atomic power station employees held hostage by Russian troops... and is a gripping account of the extraordinary events inside the plant... a tale of bravery and selflessness... It salutes the singular men and women who stepped up - as their predecessors did before them - when protocols and governments failed -- Luke Harding * Observer *
The gripping account of the Ukrainian plant workers who saved the world from another nuclear disaster... Clearly no one else was better placed to tell the tale of the 35 days of the Russian occupation of Chernobyl than Serhii Plokhy and, given the risk of a new catastrophe caused by the fighting, this is an occupation story like no other... extraordinary... a great book -- Tim Judah * Financial Times *
A terrifying blow-by-blow account of what could have been the most disastrous postscript to the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. Plokhy's exacting, precise and ultimately humane account is an act of global public service. This is a necessary book - and I can think of no writer better qualified to write it -- Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
Chernobyl Roulette is a fast-paced, illuminating narrative of the incredible heroism and courage shown by the personnel of Ukrainian nuclear facilities that were attacked by Russian forces, and of the stupefying recklessness with which the Russian military pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear disaster. A must-read -- Yaroslav Trofimov, author of Our Enemies Will Vanish
Plohky elegantly recounts the occupation of the power-plant in February 2022: held hostage by Russian troops, the plant foreman managed to turn the situation on its head, informing the Russian occupiers that in a place as contaminated as this, they would have to follow the rules -- Ada Wordsworth * The Telegraph *



Book Information
ISBN 9780241681251
Author Serhii Plokhy
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Allen Lane
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 429g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 161mm * 23mm