Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first Belarusian to receive the award.
“The quality of the writing, the stories she tells, are very absorbing.” Stephanie Flanders, chair of the 2016 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction.
Books by Svetlana Alexievich
“It takes the form of monologues, and they feel very intimate. People that we hear are brave, wise, and loving. Voices from Chernobyl should be taught in schools, but politicians are not interested in having more compassionate and conscious citizens. They cultivate ignorance.” Read more...
Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature
Hanna Komar, Poet
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
by Svetlana Alexievich
Why put Nobel prize-winning Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time on a list of the best Moon landing books? Because the Soviet achievements in space were such an important driver of the Apollo programme. This book is not about the Soviet space programme per se, but Alexievich’s description of how the Soviet people reacted when Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space is one of the most unforgettable passages of nonfiction writing we’ve read.
Interviews where books by Svetlana Alexievich were recommended
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1
The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between
by Hisham Matar -
2
Negroland: A Memoir
by Margo Jefferson -
3
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
by Svetlana Alexievich -
4
East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity
by Philippe Sands -
5
The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War
by Robert J. Gordon
Best Nonfiction Books of 2016, recommended by Stephanie Flanders
Best Nonfiction Books of 2016, recommended by Stephanie Flanders
Stephanie Flanders, chair of this year’s Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, talks us through some of the best nonfiction books of 2016.
Five of the Best Works of Belarusian Literature, recommended by Hanna Komar
Writers have been subject to persecution and repression in Belarus, and increasingly so in the aftermath of the protests that swept the nation in 2020 and 2021. Owning or distributing books deemed ‘extremist’ by the Lukashenko government can be enough to land you in jail. Here, the poet and activist Hanna Komar selects five of the best works of Belarusian literature that offer a glimpse of the culture and mindset of this post-Soviet nation, and the bravery of those who continue to fight for political freedom.
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1
Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy
by Serhii Plokhy -
2
Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry
by Sonja D Schmid -
3
Voices From Chernobyl
by Svetlana Alexievich -
4
Atomic Spaces: Living on the Manhattan Project
by Peter Bacon Hales -
5
The Politics of Invisibility: Public Knowledge about Radiation Health Effects after Chernobyl
by Olga Kuchinskaya
The best books on Chernobyl, recommended by Kate Brown
The best books on Chernobyl, recommended by Kate Brown
While widely regarded as the world’s worst nuclear accident, Chernobyl’s legacy remains fiercely contested, with death tolls ranging from 31 to 200,000. MIT historian Kate Brown, who has spent years in the Chernobyl archives, picks the best books on the disaster, compares its impact with atomic bomb testing, and argues for more research into low-dose radiation exposure
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1
Pollution is Colonialism
by Max Liboiron -
2
Living Downstream: An Ecologist's Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment
by Sandra Steingraber -
3
Dumping in Dixie
by Robert Bullard -
4
Voices From Chernobyl
by Svetlana Alexievich -
5
Silent Snow: The Slow Poisoning of the Arctic
by Marla Cone -
6
Plastic Ocean
by Charles Moore
The best books on Pollution, recommended by Rebecca Altman
The best books on Pollution, recommended by Rebecca Altman
‘One of the themes that I hope shines through is the significance of the act of witnessing. These books have all been influential, and as a result, all stand as testaments to the cascading influence one person can have.’
