In the wake of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, Soviet authorities minimized the health and environmental consequences of nuclear radiation. Drawing on a decade of archival research and interviews, Kate Brown unveils the breadth of the devastation—which may have killed 150,000 in Ukraine alone—and the whitewash that followed. Her findings clarify the impact of radioactivity on every living thing, and in this finalist for the 2019 National Book Critics Circle Award, she cautions that we have failed to learn crucial lessons from our mistakes.