5.0

From one of the accounts in the book: "Show me a fantasy novel about Chernobyl--there isn't one! Because reality is more fantastic."

Those two sentences best sum up this astounding collection. There is so much that is topsy-turvy grotesque, almost Rabelaisian, in the accounts, the memories. Ultimately, it is the details of the earth, the shoveling, and the root vegetables that soften the terror enough to make this readable. Thank goodness.