This was an interesting perspective on the Chernobyl disaster. I greatly appreciate that Andrew Leatherbarrow gave the forward he did, to note that the book focuses on both the disaster itself and his experience researching and obsessing over it. It was interesting to read a contemporary perspective on Chernobyl interspersed among the events in 1986. Geography isn't my strong suit, but I hadn't realized how close Chernobyl is to Belarus, or how wide the contamination zone has spread. Having the contemporary perspective on the issue and being able to reflect on how the survivors of the disaster are impacted by their exposure to radiation and how many of their livelihoods have been destroyed or altered by it was unique. I enjoyed that the forward addressed the help the author received through strangers and peers on the internet. He essentially crowd sourced his book for edits, content corrections, and translation and that gave it an interesting narration style. It didn't feel like the storytelling was happening from the perspective of an outsider exclusively, but almost like it was being told by a friend of somebody who the incident had happened to.