Chernobyl : confessions of a reporter / Igor Kostin ; with the collaboration of Thomas Johnson.

Original French edition by Editions les Arenes, Paris.

"Named the "man of legend" by the Washington Post, Igor Kostin is the main witness of the Chernobyl catastrophe. On April 26, 1986, several hours after the explosion, he flew over the plant; the radioactivity was so high that all his films turned black. Only one single picture survived: it was shown around the world. Surprised by the enormity of the disaster and the silence of the authorities, Kostin decided to stay and live in the midst of the 800,000 "liquidators" who followed each other on the site of the accident." "Himself affected by radiation, he did not stop, but for twenty years continued to photograph the plant and the forbidden zone surrounding it. His story became the story of Chernobyl. He witnessed the evacuation of villages, the desperation and the courage of the people, the construction of the sarcophagus, the men transporting radioactive blocks with naked hands, the machine cemetery, where man no longer belongs ... For the first time he tells the story in words and in pictures."--BOOK JACKET.