• Source: Stalking the Atomic City

Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl (Ukrainian: Оформляндія, lit. Oformliandiia) is the book of Ukrainian novelist Markiyan Kamysh. It was originally published in Ukrainian in 2014, and the first English translation was published in 2022. The book is about Kamysh's experiences illegally exploring the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone.




Synopsis


Kamysh tells of his experiences as a "stalker" in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone of Ukraine between 2010 and 2014. The essence of the book from the reviewer of The Quietus magazine: "It’s tempting to call his trespasses acts of pilgrimage, and there is something votive about them, but they are a compulsion too, an addiction. The prose – or maybe the experiences it describes – has the quality of a fever dream. Kamysh is a stalker, but it’s the forbidden Zone that stalks him. The thought of it won’t leave him alone. He swears he will stay away. He always comes back. You might call these journeys entradas, after the word the Spanish used diving into the American interior after the fall of the Aztec and Inca empires. And the zone too is a kind of terra incognita. Yes, there are maps. But I don’t know if there are any maps for what Kamysh wants to find."
The majority of the book takes place within "The Zone," including Prypiat, Chornobyl-2, and the abandoned villages. Kamysh describes his fascination and obsession with The Zone, self-described "fetish" and "addiction" persists in spite of the various dangers that he encounters while stalking.
Throughout the book, Kamysh openly discusses his complicated relationship with The Zone. He has sworn off stalking multiple times, attempting to convince himself that it is not worth the time and risk to keep returning. These attempts are always unsuccessful, and he always returns to The Zone. As a testament to this, the book concludes with the phrase "I will return again."




Reception


Western critics compare Kamysh with Hunter Thompson, Jack Kerouac and Charles Bukowski. la Repubblica included the book on their list of the ten "books of the year" that "best represent the spirit of our times". The Guardian called it "remarkable book". "Mesmerizing" from The Telegraph, "an amazing book" from Le Nouvel Obs and The Wall Street Journal called it "A punk rock pilgrimage to Chernobyl". Multiple Ukrainian authors, including Andrey Kurkov have written positive reviews of the book.




References

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Stalking the Atomic City
• Markiyan Kamysh
• Pripyat
• Cultural impact of the Chernobyl disaster
• List of Chernobyl-related articles
• Chernobyl exclusion zone
• Duga radar
• Contemporary Ukrainian literature
• Atomic tourism
• Chernobyl disaster