Accident | Accident

At a glance:

Author: Christa Wolf
First Published: 1987
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: Late April, 1986, on the day that Europe learned of the Chernobyl disaster
Setting: East Germany
Principal Characters: The unnamed narrator, Her brother, His wife, Herr Gutjahr, The narrator’s youngest daughter, The narrator’s friend, Fritz Prochnow, Heinrich Plaack, The narrator’s eldest daughter, The narrator’s granddaughter
Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Philosophical realism
Subjects: Family or family life, Twentieth century, Nature, Brothers and sisters, 1980’s, Disasters, Germany or German people, Western Europe or western Europeans, Technology, Soviet Union or Soviets, Nuclear accidents
Locales: East Germany

On April 26, 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine region of the Soviet Union exploded, blowing hot graphite and reactor fuel fragments through the roof of the containment building; the reactor core continued to burn for days. A cloud of radioactive debris containing iodine 131 and cesium contaminated the air, vegetation, soil, water, and living population—both animal and human—throughout Europe. The Soviet authorities did not immediately release information about the nuclear disaster to the rest of the world. It was only after scientists in Scandinavia measured...

Accident | Accident

At a glance:

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