The Myrovych family is inextricably involved in the nuclear power station in Chornobyl (Chernobyl in Russian) in Ukraine during the Soviet Union (USSR) at the time of the nuclear disaster. One son is the designer of the power station, another is an operator there, yet another a fireman who rushes to extinguish the flames after the station explodes. But the central character of the novel remains their all-suffering mother, a simple but wise old peasant woman.
Volodymyr Yavorivsky travelled extensively throughout the exclusion zone immediately after the accident to gather firsthand information about its impact on the people and the environment. A brutally gripping tale about the worst nuclear accident in the world.
Piercing, infuriated sirens wailed in the passageways.
The explosion threw him out of his chair.
Crashing, thunder, gnashing metal, the eerie whistle of steam...
A gigantic vigorous pillar shot up into the night sky from the ruins of the reactor, rising and growing, covering the moon and the stars above the power station, the town, the surrounding villages...
Bitumen on the blast-shattered roof melted and dripped onto the ground - these were the black tears of this sinful century.