Chernobyl: A Stalkers’ Guide

Drawing on unprecedented access to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone―including insights gained while working as a tour guide and during an illegal “stalker” hike―Darmon Richter creates an entirely new portrait of Chernobyl’s forgotten ghost towns, monuments and more

Since the first atomic bomb was dropped, humankind has been haunted by the idea of nuclear apocalypse. That nightmare almost became reality in 1986, when an accident at the USSR’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant triggered the world’s worst radiological crisis. The events of that night are well documented―but history didn’t stop there. Chernobyl, as a place, remains very much alive today. More than a quarter of a million tourists visited the Zone over the last few years, while millions more watched the acclaimed 2019 HBO mini-series Chernobyl.