Chernobyl 01

The Chernobyl disaster left behind decades of contradictory, exaggerated stories, and Andrew Leatherbarrow spent five years researching what really happened. The title marks the second Alexander Akimov pressed the emergency shutdown button on the plant's fourth reactor, an act that led to the permanent evacuation of a city. Leatherbarrow covers the struggle to keep the burning core from contaminating eastern Europe, the men who worked in radiation strong enough to stop machines, what really happened with the so-called Chernobyl divers, and the final Soviet show trial. Alongside the history runs his own unplanned trip to Pripyat and the wider Chernobyl Zone. Over 45 pages of photographs and station diagrams are included.

Craig Mazin, creator of the Chernobyl TV series, called it a mix of travelogue with historical and scientific retelling that he found very helpful.