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English edition
Feb
2006
112 pp.
Hardbound
12.5X20 cm
$17.95
LE 80.00
ISBN
978 977 424 969 3
For sale worldwide
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Memories of a Meltdown
An Egyptian between Moscow and Chernobyl
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Mohamed Makhzangi
Translated by
Samah Selim
An ‘anti-memoir’ set against the backdrop of the Chernobyl disaster
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.
Described by the author as an ‘anti-memoir,’ 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 hot tap water than cool, Makhzangi portrays people unwilling or unable to believe in the magnitude of the disaster unfolding around them. In the finest tradition of literary reportage, Makhzangi masterfully conveys here the loneliness of exile, the urgency of a great tragedy, and the intimacy of personal experience.
MOHAMED MAKHZANGI was born in 1950. He studied to become a doctor and later specialized in psychology and alternative medicine in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. He later turned to journalism and writing and now works on the children’s edition of al-‘Arabi magazine. He has published several volumes of short stories.
SAMAH SELIM is a scholar and translator based in France.
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