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Craig Mazin's Top Book Recommendations

Writer, Producer/Chernobyl TV Series

Want to know what books Craig Mazin recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Craig Mazin's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

1

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

Andrew Leatherbarrow

4.1
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 comprehensi
Brad Feld portraitCraig Mazin portrait Recommended by Brad Feld and Craig Mazin.
Craig Mazin portrait
Craig Mazin

Writer, Producer/Chernobyl TV Series

Andrew's book is a fantastic combination of travelogue and historic and scientific recounting of the Chernobyl disaster, and I found it incredibly helpful. Plus... he's a great guy! Buy this one! [source]

Brad Feld portrait
Brad Feld

Co-Founder/Foundry Group

@leatherbarr0w It's pretty awesome. I just bought your book. [source]

2

Chernobyl: A Documentary Story

Iurii Shcherbak, Ian Press

2.5
A documentary account of the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986, this is based on interviews with many of the participants. Shcherbak considers Chernobyl to be the most important event in the USSR since World War II and felt compelled to go and live there and interview those involved.
Craig Mazin portrait Recommended by Craig Mazin.
Voices from Chernobyl book cover3

Voices from Chernobyl

Svetlana Alexievich

4.5
On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear reactor accident in history occurred at the Chernobyl complex in Pripyat. English-language reportage on the incident has, so far, focused on facts, names, and data; Voices from Chernobyl presents first-hand accounts of what happened to the people of Belarus and the fear, anger, and uncertainty that they lived through. In order to give voice to their experiences
Caterina Fake portraitCraig Mazin portraitKate Brown portrait Recommended by Caterina Fake, Craig Mazin, Kate Brown, and 1 others.
Craig Mazin portrait
Craig Mazin

Writer, Producer/Chernobyl TV Series

These are sources I found fascinating and useful. Not ALL of them, but a bunch. First up, obviously... Svetlana Alexievich's Voices From Chernobyl. Absolutely essential, and heartbreaking, reading. There's a reason Ms. Alexievich has a Nobel Prize. [source]

Kate Brown portrait
Kate Brown

It’s a very beautiful work and I think it gives you the emotional landscape of how people dealt with their anxieties, fears, the health problems that ensued, and their growing sense of disillusionment with their political leaders and the Communist party. [source]

Rebecca Altman portrait
Rebecca Altman

What follows events like Chernobyl is a politics of measurement. Who counts? What counts? Who does the counting? How are boundaries drawn for the purposes of counting and comparing? And what is discounted, or never counted at all? [source]

4

Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl

Piers Paul Read

4.1
The bestselling author of Blaze presents a heart-pounding account of the world's greatest nuclear disaster, based on sources not available before the fall of the Soviet Union. Read's enthralling account is filled with acts of courage--and also bumbling confusion, secrecy, lies, and coverups. Read spent many months in Russia interviewing hundreds of survivors and experts. Photographs. 3 maps.
Craig Mazin portrait Recommended by Craig Mazin.
5

The Legacy of Chernobyl

Zhores Medvedev

4.1
On the morning of April 26, 1986, a Soviet nuclear plant at Chernobyl (near Kiev) exploded, pouring radioactivity into the environment and setting off the worst disaster in the history of nuclear energy. Now a former Soviet scientist gives a comprehensive account of the catastrophe.
Craig Mazin portrait Recommended by Craig Mazin.
6

Chernobyl Record: The Definitive History of the Chernobyl Catastrophe

R.F Mould

3.8
The nuclear accident at Chernobyl on April 26, 1986 had a heavy impact on life, health, and the environment. It caused agony to people in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia and anxiety far away from these countries. The economic losses and social dislocation were severe in a region already under strain. It is now possible to make more accurate assessments of these effects than it was in the first fe
Craig Mazin portrait Recommended by Craig Mazin.
7

Chernobyl: Insight from the Inside

Vladimir M. Chernousenko

4.8
Chernousenko's "Chernobyl" is a first-hand account of the events and facts surrounding this global disaster: The first part of the book includes an absoring account of what happened at Chernobyl nuclear power station on April 26, 1986, as well as a review of the rectification measures taken so far. The author re-analyzes the causes of the accident, confronting us with startling details about criti
Craig Mazin portrait Recommended by Craig Mazin.
8

The Truth About Chernobyl

Grigori Medvedev

4.3
The Truth About Chernobyl by Grigori Medvedev, the top Soviet physicist who was originally commissioned to investigate the tragedy, is at long last available to reveal the long-suppressed, minute-by-minute account of the disaster and cover-up along with an analysis of the consequences.
Craig Mazin portrait Recommended by Craig Mazin.