First published in Russian as
Tchernobylskaia. Molitva. by Editions Ostojie, 1997
Copyright © 1997 by Svetlana Alexievich
Translation © 2005
by Keith Gessen
First edition, 2005
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
ISBN 1-56478-401-0
Partially funded by grants from the
Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment
for the Arts, a federal agency, and
the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.
Dalkey Archive Press is a nonprofit organization located at Milner Library
(Illinois State University) and distributed in the UK by
Turnaround Publisher Services Ltd. (London).
www.centerforbookculture.org
Printed on permanent/durable acid-free
paper and bound in the
United States of America.
CONTENTS
Translator's Preface
vii
Historical Note
1
Prologue: A Solitary Human Voice
5
PART ONE: THE LAND OF THE DEAD
On
Why We Remember
25
About What Can Be Talked about with the
27
Living and the Dead
About a Whole Life Written down on Doors
34
By Those Who Returned
36
About
What Radiation Looks Like
50
About a Song without Words
53
About a Homeland
54
About How a Person Is Only Clever
and Refined in Evil
64
Soldiers' Chorus
67
