Product Description
Product Description
Twenty years later, an Arab writer's recollections of his experiences during the Chernobyl disaster are presented. In the spring of 1986, Mohamed Makhzangi was living in Kiev, an Egyptian doctor studying in the Ukraine. As a result, he - like thousands of others - found himself living a nuclear nightmare, when the Chernobyl plant had a catastrophic meltdown. Despite numerous fail-safe protections, human error sent massive quantities of deadly radiation into the serene spring of the Soviet sky. In superbly crafted prose, "Memories of a Meltdown" describes the days that followed from Makhzangi's dual perspective, as both an outsider and a victim. This assemblage of impressions in the aftermath of the meltdown offers a searing account of factual events distilled through the filter of literature. Blending the realism of journalism with the emotional resonance of fiction, Makhzangi conveys the quiet but steadily mounting atmosphere of fear and panic, the dubious reliability of official statements, and an overall loss of the sense of safety, of anything ever being right with the world again. From the balding colleague who is concerned only about whether his hair will fall out, to a grandfather, fetching his young grandson a drink, who believes that there is less contamination in cool tap water than hot, Makhzangi portrays people unwilling or unable to believe in the magnitude of the disaster unfolding around them.
About the Author
Mohamed Makhzangi was born in 1950 in the town of Mansura in the Delta of Egypt. He studied to become a doctor and later specialized in psychology and alternative medicine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. Having practiced as a doctor for some years, he turned to journalism and writing and spent time in Kuwait working on the magazine al-'Arabi. Back in Cairo, he works on the children1s edition of al-'Arabi. He has published several volumes of short stories. He now divides his time between Egypt and Syria.
