Chernobyl 01:23:40

Full Title: Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster 

Author: Andrew Leatherbarrow

Genre: Nonfiction

Book description (from Good Reads): At 01:23:40 on April 26th 1986, Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button at Chernobyl’s fourth nuclear reactor. It was an act that forced the permanent evacuation of a city, killed thousands and crippled the Soviet Union. The event spawned decades of conflicting, exaggerated and inaccurate stories.
This book, the result of five years of research, presents an accessible but comprehensive account of what really happened. From the desperate fight to prevent a burning reactor core from irradiating eastern Europe, to the self-sacrifice of the heroic men who entered fields of radiation so strong that machines wouldn’t work, to the surprising truth about the legendary ‘Chernobyl divers’, all the way through to the USSR’s final show-trial. The historical narrative is interwoven with a story of the author’s own spontaneous journey to Ukraine’s still-abandoned city of Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone.

Thoughts:

It is my first dive into the story of what really happened.  I had a hard time following the technical discussion/explanations but still, it was enough to get the grip of how the actions of the people involved might not have been the best ones but... really hard to judge. 

It is clear the author loves the topic and from the narrative, the authorities did not take the best decisions about the accident, they blamed the whole thing on the operators not wanting to accept the fact that there were design flaws as well.

It is not only about the accident, but it also shares the story of his experience of when he went to visit the site himself. Initially, it was a bit confusing he went from the middle of the telling of the accident to the visit, I got used to it pretty quick and in the end, did not mind it as much, but beware, it is told in parts interchanging from one to another. 

Because it is the very first book on the subject, I really have nothing to compare it with but it was an ok read, bad part it took me a little bit to get used to the changing of one story to the next, it is filled with the authors experience and filled with his opinions, so yeah, you feel this is very biased. On the other hand, the fact that he shares so much of his feelings it feels like hearing the tale from a friend kind (especially if you pick the audiobook like I did).