This book meticulously examines human capacity. The capacity to sacrifice people for power and children for honor; to believe in something against all odds, whether it be science, the Party, the land, or love. It is simultaneously a critique of this fatalist mentality and an exaltation of that very dogma that keeps us “sane” amidst the insanity that Chernobyl presented to mankind. I find myself grateful to Alexievich for doing this work and taking the time and pain to gather these stories and tell them, with the small hope that we may some day learn to truly value human life…