A Book About Travels in Chernobyl

The book about Chernobyl “Chernobyl Surfing” written by Elena Filatova, and illustrated with some of my work is now on sale and distributed by the Italian publishing house, Ponchiroli Editori.  Elena is best know for her diary, Kid of Speed.  In it, she describes her motorcycle trip in the Ukrainian and Belorussian exclusions zones around Chernobyl.

I accepted participating in the book at the insistence of the editors at Ponchiroli.  They wanted me to provide pictures of Pripyat as accompanyment for Elena’s story.  The book would include also include illustrations, historical footage, and images provided by a couple of other photographers.  The idea was to illustrate the book with a “balanced” and diversified perspective.

Chernobyl Surfing – The Controversy about Elena

Elena’s story itself is surrounded in controversy.  She claims to have ridden her motorcycle freely in the Exclusion Zone, but is accused lying.  Administrators of the Zone claim she only went on a guided tour.  They even claim to had seen her take pictures with her helmet and clothes as props.  It could be Elena’s story is fabricated.

It is also possible Elena’s writing is absolutely true.  I would not be surprised that the Zone’s administration disclaimed Elena’s narrative in order to not have to admit to the obvious security deficiencies her story implied about them.

Regardless, of the truth, Elena, has never sought remuneration from story, and claims to simply want to keep the tragedy of Chernobyl from being forgotten.  I think this is the most important point and the editors agree. There are many works of fiction about Chernobyl, and whether or not Elena’s account is completely true is (in my opinion) irrelevant.  Her story is interesting, compelling and raises awareness.  Therefore, despite what some forums and people say about Elena’s story I was glad to participate.

Chernobyl Book – Keeping True by Not Changing the Original Words

Elena’s story is written by her in English.  She writes very well, but not being a native English speaker has spelling and grammatical mistakes.  I think this helps add depth to her narrative because those imperfections capture the tone and accent of her verbally telling the story.

If one is not familiar with this, and reads her story, as written by her verbatim in the book, it may seem that the book is full of mistakes.  This however was a deliberate choice, partially influenced by the desire to keep the Elena’s original tone, and partially to comply with her wishes (and legal implications) to not modify or edit her work.

My only criticism, is that this conscious decision is not explained  upfront in the book.  Not knowing this can lead one to think editing was sloppy.  Indeed, this was my initial reaction when I saw the English version in the pdf copies provided to me for review by Ponchiroli Editori.  This lead to an an initial strong difference of opinion with the editors.  (Something I wrote about initially in this blog.  In hindsight I should have communicated better with them first rather than sounding off here.)

Chernobyl Book – Ponchiroli Editori

Dealing with the editors was a pleasure.  They were able to put the book together on a very short deadline and keep a visually impressive layout with the English writing of Elena and a translation into Italian.  I’ve dealt with other publishers and editors, and the paperwork and legal needs can get in the way of getting a book completed, but not with Ponchiroli.  Working with them was smooth and honest and I would recommend.