Memory x Environment Book Club: "Chernobyl Prayer" by Svetlana Alexievich

Memory x Environment Book Club: "Chernobyl Prayer" by Svetlana Alexievich

17.00–18.30 December 16   The working language will be English.

This Month's Reading: We will discuss Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future (published in the US as Voices from Chernobyl and in Estonian as Tšernobõli palve) by Svetlana Alexievich. The book is a compilation of firsthand monologues from firefighters, clean-up workers, widows, and residents who survived the 1986 nuclear disaster. Rather than focusing on technical failures or politics, it documents the psychological, emotional, and everyday human cost of living through an invisible catastrophe.

About the Memory x Environment Book Club: In our contemporary society, cultural memory is divisive and contested: we clash over different linguistic, cultural, religious, and environmental heritage. The recent pandemic and worsening climate crisis have raised awareness about planetary interconnectedness. Our Book Club is an intellectually enriching space focused on books that raise questions of cultural memory, ecology, history, and human-nature interconnectedness. We read widely—from non-fiction to literary fiction and sci-fi—and welcome anyone with a passion for reading and critical discussion.

The Book Club is part of the "Memory and Environment: The Intersection of Fast and Slow Violence in Transnational European Literatures" project framework at Tallinn University.

Please register for the meeting HERE.