On the night of April 26, 1986, reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, triggering one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. Based on more than a decade of work, recordings of hundreds of conversations, personal correspondence, unpublished memoirs and recently declassified archival documents, journalist Adam Higginbotham has written a heartbreaking and gripping account in which we see the Chernobyl disaster through the eyes of its first witnesses. The result is a masterful documentary thriller, an exhaustive account of an event that changed history - far more complex, human and frightening than the Chernobyl myth we are used to. "Chernobyl: A Disaster Story" is an indelible picture of one of the twentieth century's greatest misfortunes and simultaneously a document of human resilience and ingenuity, a testament to the hard lessons learned by humanity as it attempts to bend nature to its will--lessons that, in the face of impending climate change and other modern threats, seem not just important, but vital.
