PositiveThe TimesDespite the book’s largely consistent tone of academic detachment, there are comic moments, such as when Trump is rushed to safety in a commandeered golf cart, and when Air Force One escapes Florida minutes before Armageddon, a grotesquely childlike Trump refuses to lower his window blind despite the risk of nuclear flash. It would not have been a surprise to read of him kicking the seat in front and demanding juice. There are also implausible aspects, such as the president’s failure to respond with \'fire and fury,\' even when Trump Tower is vaporised, taking poor Melania with it. Most implausible is the relative lack of nuclear horror. The book offers vacuum-packed descriptions of ruined America, supplemented with quotes from the Hibakusha, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, some of which are remarkably tame ... if he has given himself the freedom of a novel, then why stick with \'stilted\' quotes? Invent some. Yet there is stern value in this novel. While not beautifully written, it is a bold warning of how easily the nightmare could occur: via a series of mistakes, assumptions and a CAPS LOCK tweet sent from a sunny golf course.
Serhii Plokhy
RaveThe TimesThis book, the first comprehensive history of the Chernobyl disaster, assesses the Soviet reaction to the nuclear horror. It shows the governing elite as bureaucratic, heartless and often bewildered. While much of pop culture now presents Chernobyl as the site of horror flicks and computer games, Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy reclaims the tragedy. Now that Ukraine’s revolution has opened the archives, here at last is the monumental history the disaster deserves ... There is no neat and happy ending. Plokhy ditches the pleasing talk of roses, children and freedom to make the icy point that when Ukraine won independence it found itself a fledgling nation with bills to pay, particularly the massive welfare bill for the Chernobyl \'sufferers\', so it embraced the nuclear plant it had fought so valiantly against.
