The 1,000-square-mile Chornobyl Exclusion Zone is, for many, a symbol of total disaster: a reminder of shattered ideals and lost lives, now a toxic, dangerous no-man's-land. For Markiyan Kamysh, it became a site of pilgrimage.
He and dozens like him call themselves 'stalkers': wild adventurers who sneak past border patrols to spend days getting lost in this apocalyptic environment of dense swampland and desolate villages. Kamysh, the son of a Chornobyl disaster liquidator, takes us with him into this alien world.
In electric prose that captures the spectral beauty of the Zone and the reckless spirit of the stalkers, Kamysh tells of hallucinatory journeys alone amid the rusted ruins, of frantic brushes with police and moments of ecstatic oblivion in the wasteland. Written with gonzo energy and brash lyricism, Stalking the Atomic City is a vital, singular document of this dystopian reality.
Review
A poetic rush to madness... shockingly real, recounted in a stunning, original voice as lyrical as it is unnerving -- Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us
Stark, surreal... A visceral, graphic report from dystopia - Kirkus Reviews
A fantastic account of the reality of disaster... A true backpacker's guide for disaster tourists - L'Humanité
A gonzo account of life as a "stalker"-a shadowy thrill-seeker haunting the Chornobyl exclusion zone after dark, sneaking past the guards and scaling radio masts. Kamysh's throbbing, fragmentary prose offers heart-stopping insight into what drives those who choose to trespass in dangerous places: reckless abandon in abandoned places -- Cal Flyn, author of Islands of Abandonment
In the shadow of catastrophe, Markiyan Kamysh writes with all of youth's wayward lyricism, like a nuclear Kerouac -- Rob Doyle, author of Threshold
A voice that must be heard -- Patti Smith (via Instagram)
About the Author
Markiyan Kamysh is a Ukrainian writer who represents the Chornobyl underground in literature. Since 2010, he has illegally explored the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone. He is the son of a Chornobyl liquidator, nuclear physicist and design engineer of the Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv who died in 2003. Stalking the Atomic City, his first book, has been translated into multiple languages and published to great acclaim. He lives in Kyiv, Ukraine. See more photos on his Instagram @markiyankamysh.
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