'A necessary book - and I can think of no writer better qualified to write it' Cal Flyn 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.
