Support Us
Five Books
 
Search
MENUMENU
  • Nonfiction
        • Art
          • Architecture
          • Art History
          • Design & Illustration
          • Fashion & Style
          • Modern and Contemporary Art
          • Photography
        • Business Books
          • How to Invest
          • Leadership
          • Marketing
        • Economics
          • Behavioural Economics
          • Development Economics
          • Economic History
          • Finance
          • Financial Crisis
          • Globalization Books
          • World Economies
        • Environmental Books
          • Climate Change Books
          • Environmental Ethics
        • Food & Cooking
          • The Best Cookbooks
          • Food & History of Food
          • Wine & Drinks
        • Health & Lifestyle
          • Death & Dying
          • Education
          • Family & Relationships
          • Happiness
          • Sex & Sexuality
        • History Books
          • American History
          • Ancient History (up to 500)
          • Modern History (1800-1945)
          • History of Science
          • Historical Figures
          • Military History
        • Language
          • English Grammar & Usage
          • Books for Learning Languages
          • Linguistics
        • Law
        • Literary Nonfiction
          • Best Biographies
          • Essays
          • Memoir
          • Artists' Biographies
          • Travel
          • True Crime
        • Music & Drama
          • Classical Music & Opera
          • Film & Cinema
          • Music
          • Theatre
        • Nature
          • The Prehistoric World
          • The Earth
          • Plants, Trees & Flowers
        • Philosophy Books
          • Ancient Philosophy
          • Ethics & Moral Philosophy
          • Great Philosophers
          • Social & Political Philosophy
        • Politics & Society
          • War
          • Feminism
          • Foreign Policy & International Relations
          • Human Rights
          • Terrorism
        • Psychology
          • Mental Health
          • Neuroscience
          • Psychoanalysis
          • Psychology Research
          • Self Help
        • Religion
          • Best Atheist Books
          • Buddhism
          • Christian
          • Islamic
          • Jewish
          • Religious History Books
        • Science
          • Astronomy
          • Biology
          • Chemistry
          • Geoscience
          • Maths & Statistics
          • Popular Science
          • Physics Books
        • Sports, Games & Hobbies
          • Football (Soccer)
          • Gardening
          • Hobbies
          • Sport & Sporting Culture
        • Technology
          • Artificial Intelligence/AI Books
          • Computing
          • Digital Age
          • History of Technology
          • Internet
  • Fiction & Literature
        • Classic English Literature
        • American Literature
        • World Literature
        • Literary Criticism
        • Literary Figures
        • Classical Studies
        • Contemporary Fiction
          • NEW Fiction
        • Poetry
        • Memoir
        • Comics & Graphic Novels
        • Fairy Tales & Mythology
        • Historical Fiction
        • Horror
        • Humour
        • Crime Novels
        • Science Fiction
        • Short Stories
        • Romance
        • Thrillers (Books)
        • Mystery
        • Fantasy
  • World
        • Africa
          • Egypt
          • Ghana
          • Nigeria
          • Rwanda
          • South Africa
          • Zimbabwe
        • Americas
          • Latin America
            • Argentina
            • Brazil
            • Caribbean
            • Chile
            • Cuba
            • Mexico
          • United States
          • Canada
        • Arctic & Antarctica
        • Asia
          • Afghanistan
          • Bangladesh
          • Myanmar (Formerly Burma)
          • China
          • India
          • Japan
          • Kazakhstan
          • Korea
          • Pakistan
          • Sri Lanka
          • Singapore
          • Vietnam
        • Australia
        • Europe
          • Belgium
          • Britain
          • France
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Ireland
          • Italy
          • Netherlands
          • Norway
          • Spain
          • Ukraine
        • Middle East
          • Iran
          • Iraq
          • Israel
          • Syria
          • Turkey
          • Yemen
        • Russia & FSU
          • Azerbaijan
          • Georgia
          • Russia
  • Kids
        • Kids Recommend Books for Kids
        • High School Teachers Recommendations
        • Novels & Novelists
        • Ages Baby-2
        • Ages 3-5
        • Ages 6-8
        • Ages 9-12
        • Books for Teens and Young Adults
        • Best Kids Books of 2022
        • Best Books for Teens of 2022
        • Best Audiobooks for Kids
        • Prizewinning Kids' Books
        • Popular Series Books for Kids
        • History
        • Economics
        • Environment
        • Family
        • Science
        • Mental Health
  • Best Books 2022
        • Audiobooks
        • Best Books for Teens of 2022
        • Best Kids' Books of 2022
        • Best Fiction of 2022
          • Historical Fiction
          • Romance
          • Science Fiction
          • Fantasy
          • Mystery
        • Best Nonfiction of 2022
          • History
          • Politics
          • Memoir
  • New Books
        • New Science Books
        • New Climate Books
        • New Psychology Books
        • New Philosophy Books
        • New Math Books
        • New Economics Books
        • New History Books
        • New Physics Books
        • New Memoirs
        • New Biography
        • New Fiction
        • New World Literature
        • New Historical Fiction
  • Audiobooks
    • Actors Read Great Books
    • Best Audiobooks for Kids
    • Books Narrated by Their Authors
    • Best Audiobook Thrillers
    • Best History Audiobooks
  • Book Awards
    • Nobel Literature Prize
    • Booker Prize
    • Baillie Gifford Prize
    • Royal Society (science)
    • Wolfson Prize (history)
    • Walter Scott Prize
    • Arthur C Clarke Prize
    • Pushkin House Prize
    • Audie Awards
  • Experts

History Books » Modern History (1800-1945)

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy
Buy now Listen now

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy

by Serhii Plokhy

***Winner of the 2018 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction***

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy is a gripping and highly readable book by Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy about the Chernobyl nuclear accident of April 26th, 1986 at Pripyat, in what is now Ukraine. The audiobook is read by the British actor Leighton Pugh.

Recommendations from our site

“He’s really good here at laying down the background of the disaster itself, the plant’s construction, the days leading up to it, the moments the accident occurred. He talks about the accident itself, the delay in informing the public, the censorship of news, the trial of the nuclear power plant operators who he thinks were treated as scapegoats, and the political outcomes of all this deception.” Read more...

The best books on Chernobyl

Kate Brown, Historian

“The book unpacks every single detail of this extraordinarily human blunder and the massive consequences that it went on to have. Very well written, very well researched, absolutely fascinating about the end of the Soviet empire.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2018

Fiammetta Rocco, Artists & Art Critic

“It’s just a really thrilling book, as well as being a really interesting history of that time. But the reason why I think it’s also a brilliant political book is fundamentally what Plokhii reveals in his writing, is that the failure of Chernobyl was fundamentally a failure of a political system, as well as a failure of a scientific system.” Read more...

The Best Politics Books of 2018

Stephen Bush, Political Commentator

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy, the prizewinning book by Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy, is not a book about Mikhail Gorbachev, but it is about one of the most catastrophic events that happened under his watch, the accident of April 26th, 1986 at a nuclear power plant in Pripyat, now in Ukraine. With his slowness to inform the Soviet people what was going on, Gorbachev does not come out of the events of those months looking particularly good.

Books about Mikhail Gorbachev

Commentary

“Europe nearly became uninhabitable.”

Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy by Serhii Plokhy review, The Guardian, May 9th, 2018

Other books by Serhii Plokhy

Atoms and Ashes by Serhii Plokhy

Atoms and Ashes
by Serhii Plokhy

The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present by Serhii Plokhy

The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine’s Past and Present
by Serhii Plokhy

Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy

Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Serhii Plokhy

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine by Serhii Plokhy

The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine
by Serhii Plokhy

The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires by Serhii Plokhy

The Cossack Myth: History and Nationhood in the Age of Empires
by Serhii Plokhy

The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union by Serhii Plokhy

The Last Empire: The Final Days of the Soviet Union
by Serhii Plokhy

Our most recommended books

  • Life and Fate
    by Vasily Grossman and translated by Robert Chandler

  • First Light
    by Geoffrey Wellum

  • A Woman in Berlin
    by Anonymous

  • Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
    by Christopher Browning

  • War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

    War and Peace
    by Leo Tolstoy

  • Paris Between Empires 1814-1852
    by Philip Mansel

Support Five Books

Five Books interviews are expensive to produce, please support us by donating a small amount.

About

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

Five Books participates in the Amazon Associate program and earns money from qualifying purchases.

Newsletter Contact us Privacy Policy Terms of Service Mastodon Social

© Five Books 2023

Get our newsletter