From Chernobyl with Love

From Chernobyl with Love by Katya Cengel

Katya is an American journalist who lived in Latvia and later Ukraine starting in the 1990s. She is an intrepid traveler and adventurer who allows her readers to join her from their own comfy homes as she vividly shares tales of her work, dating and the difficulties of her life abroad.

This memoir will have you kissing ground where you live, grateful that you are not living in a former Soviet country.Doing without luxuries is a given since even basics like running water, heat and electricity are in often in doubt. Why she stays is beyond my understanding, though a romantic relationship plays a part.

This story is an easy read that will capture the interest of those who dream of living and working in a country very unlike their own. Katya’s travels for a good story, even to still-toxic Chernobyl, will leave you shaking your head in wonder.

My sincere thanks to #NetGalley and #UniversityofNebraskaPress/PotomacBooks for an ARC for this review.

Its always interesting to read about the experiences of those who have lived and worked in a different country to their own. When the two countries being written about happen to have recently gained independence status after the collapse of the Soviet Union then those experiences become even more of interest. Katya Cengel's story takes place in Latvia and the Ukraine in the late 1990's and early 2000's where she was working as a rather poorly paid journalist. This was a time of economic, political and social upheaval which are referenced in the book. There was no carefully thought out transition here when the Soviet Union broke up. One minute there was a planned economy with guaranteed housing, employment and social structures and the next minute it was all gone.

We learn of the deep division between the Latvians and Ukrainians on one side and the now fearful Russian community on the other. One side nationalistic, anti Soviet and western looking and the other looking eastward and fondly on the previous setup. This difference being further exacerbated by language and religion. But it is the day to day experiences that I found most fascinating. Whether it was being a passenger on an overnight train or staying in a Ukrainian hospital (not the most pleasurable of experiences) and trying to collect a medical parcel from the USA would turn into a kafkaesque nightmare almost leading to imprisonment.

This is a remarkably honest account by the author as we learn of her troubled upbringing and disastrous marriage to a Ukrainian photographer whom she meets at work. For Ukraine the misery continues and it remains a festering sore that threatens European peace and stability. If you are looking to gain an extra insight into this troubled land then this is well worth a read.

From the beaches of California to the former Soviet Union. Journalist Katya Cengel wants a job with a difference.
She was involved in the grime and petty crime that came from the dissolution of such a massive country. Why did she stay and suffer such illness, and harshness ? Why did she develop such a complicated relationship with a man.
Even collecting a parcel sent from her mother becomes a mass of red tape and attempted bribery and all it contained was over the counter medication and a retainer. Why did she stay so long, I have no idea. Is a well written account of history made and remade with a brush against Chernobyl. . I continued to read as I felt the chill of the unheated concrete apartments and the feel of unwashed linen, I am a soft southern soul and would have left within days of arriving. Kaya is made of sterner stuff.

an amazing read.

I have always loved Chernobyl and seeing this journalist take on a challenge is particularly well done. I have always had a bit of an interest in Chernobyl and this book just makes me want to keep looking more into it.

I will be looking to buy this when it comes out as I think it is something I will keep reading.

thank you, NetGalley and everyone else concerned for letting me read this title early.

I enjoyed reading about Katya's experience of living in post Soviet Eastern Europe and was in awe of how brave she was to go there in the first place. However I found it a bit of an odd read. It was like she was just writing down things when they came into her mind which I found very confusing! For example one minute she was describing visiting a journalist in hospital and then she was describing how she was now in hospital for her own health, with not even a linking sentence! I had to re-read it a couple of times before I understood what was going on! Just writing 'and the next time I was in a hospital it was for my own health' or something along those lines would've helped. This sort of thing happened a few times throughout the book, to the point where I nearly have up, but the experiences she personally lived through, and those of her residents and friends, were really interesting so plough on if you can!

Katya Cengel found herself at a strange crossroads when leaving college. She needed to find experience to go work for a prominent newspaper, but she was looking for adventure. With the Berlin Wall coming down and cries for democracy in Eastern Europe at the time, the former U.S.S.R. was not exactly the place one would expect a young Californian to go willingly. The book From Chernobyl with Love covers Katya's years working in Latvia and the city of Kyiv. From going to the site of the poorly covered-up Chernobyl disaster site, living in an Eastern Bloc apartment, and the pretty terrifying world of medicine in the Ukraine, Katya learned a great deal of how to navigate a world where she barely spoke the language.

From Chernobyl With Love is not just a personal memoir, but also a look at what happens to people when they've undergone multiple regime changes, civil war, and starvation. Many people in Eastern Europe have experienced things folks in America are only learning about.  The book is fascinating and filled with moments where one wonders what they would have done in Katya's place. A great deal of her personal stories have to do with meeting her fiance and her friends that helped her navigate Latvia and the Ukraine.  

From Chernobyl With Love is available from the University of Nebraska Press November 1, 2019.

As someone who currently lives in a foreign country I really enjoy reading about the experiences of others when they move outside of the United States. I found Katya's story to be really inspirational and brave. She set out, before even completing her college degree, to Latvia. That certainly isn't one of the glamorous locations that you think of when you consider journalists traveling the world. It was really interesting to learn about her experiences in the former Soviet Union. I really enjoyed Katya's storytelling abilities and enjoyed the experiences she shared!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and inbiased review.
To be honest this is not really my typical sort of read, but as someone of a certain age to have lived through the 80's & 90s and the break up of the old USSR this subject matter was of interest.
Loved the bravery of a young American woman, Kaya Cengel, heading off to the old Russian states to work as a reporter even though she couldn't speak the language.
Thoroughly enjoyed the story she told and remembered a number of the events, obviously not least of which being the events and aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster itself.
No hesitation in recommending.

Katya Cengel's account of her time working as a journalist in the fragmenting chaos of post-Soviet Eastern Europe is an extremely valuable document of a time and situation that few in the west can fully comprehend. Her personal account avoids sweeping philosophical observations and analysis but within its detail of anxieties, misunderstandings and shared joy she gives a colourful insight of how lives fought to rassert and reset themselves under new regimes, or lack of them. The insidious fallout from Chernobyl plays an looming role in her story mirroring the lingering tentacles of surveillance and control of the failing state. As the illustrations suggest the youthful and enthusiastic Cengel seems to smile her way through every adversity and finds herself in a position to observe and report on the realities of the situation in a very personal way. It may not be reportage in the tradition of Orwell but her story is valuable in its singularity and focus.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a powerful symbol of the more widespread collapse of communist regimes in Europe and the thawing of relations between East and West. Since then, countries which were once behind the so-called “Iron Curtain”, including the Baltic states, have become popular tourist destinations – apart from enthusiastic competitors in the Eurovision song contest. However, it sometimes seems as if their years under Soviet rule or influence have not yet been shrugged off, giving them a strange and exotic aura. Decades after its demise, the USSR and its satellite states still exert a morbid or (depending on one’s sympathies) nostalgic fascination. Perhaps, this explains, in part, the enthusiasm for HBO’s tv series Chernobyl.

If Eastern Europe still feels ‘different’ now, imagine how it was like in 1998. For Californian journalist Katya Cengel, then just a twenty-two-year old college graduate, it was, both literally and metaphorically, at the other end of the world. Far from disheartening her, this challenge drove her to seek a job with the Baltic Times in Latvia and then, once this first leg of her European adventure was finished, to move to the Ukraine.

From Chernobyl with Love contains the memoirs of these difficult but rewarding years. Admittedly, the choice of title seems suspiciously like an attempt to capitalise on the current interest in Chernobyl – the book has little to do with that nuclear plant or its notorious disaster, apart from the fact that one of Cengel’s assignments in Chernobyl led to her meeting with her husband, whose step-father happened to be an engineer at the plant at the time of the explosion.

Yet, even if it’s Chernobyl which makes you pick up this book, you will likely hold on to it for other reasons. For Cengel is an engaging raconteur. The story she presents to us is, primarily, a personal one. She reveals much about her relationship with her family, about the friends she made in Latvia and the Ukraine, about falling in (and out of) love with the man who would become her husband. In her account, Cengel tends to downplay her professional prowess and successes – she’s actually a prize-winning, globe-trotting journalist. Her skill shows in the way she uses her (and others’) personal stories to comment on wider social, political and cultural issues. Thus, her own struggles with illness give her account a human dimension, but also serve as eye-openers about the dismal health services in the Ukraine. Her relationship (and subsequent rift) with her ex-husband, also serve to highlight the difficulty of bridging the almost irreconcilable differences between distant cultures. Small details reveal the hardships faced in post-Communist countries – from the constant struggle with the cold in less-then-comfortable residences to the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of Government offices (importing orthodontic retainers involved getting a personal authorisation from the Health Minister) and the quasi-farcical political posturing (as revealed in Cengel’s chapter about her assignment in the separatist state of Transdienstria). Several chapters recount the build-up to Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, as witnessed at first hand by the author.

From Chernobyl with Love is no history book. It’s something even more authentic – a personal account of some of the most tumultuous events in of the recent past.

This was a very interesting and intriguing book to read. I enjoyed it. I would definitely read more from this author in the future.

An entertainingly gonzo memoir of some wild and harrowing times in the author's life. With the Ukraine so much in the news, and indeed the entire former Soviet Empire seemingly in the throes of an existential battle between liberalism and totalitarianism, this incredibly personal tale provides a keyhole view into recent history.

For deep historical and political analysis, look elsewhere. But for anyone not steeped in the recent history of the Ukraine, or anyone who wants to know how to navigate being a stranger in a strange land, this book is a great read.

A fantastic (and beautifully written) picture of life through the iron curtain. Cengel spent the early part of her career in some extraordinary places at a pivotal moment in history. Always readable, the characters and events that she encounters while working in Riga and Kiev are fascinating. In the front line of the new free press Cengel shares her experiences of the massive cultural changes in eastern europe though the late 80s and 90's. A really rewarding read.

Thank you to University of Nebraska Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest reivew.

As someone who spent a good bit of the 90s in Eastern Europe, I enjoyed this book quite a lot, because it brought back memories of those times for me. At the same time, the naive, carefree and clueless attitude put my back up a bit. Innumerable young US Americans flooded into the region after the iron curtain came down, but to her credit the author was open to the adventure, and tried earnestly to come to grips with the post-Soviet experience. The only thing that really bothered me was the author's descriptions of her friendships - but maybe I'm of a generation that values friendships and relationships differently.

There's not much historical and political analysis here, but intriguing insights into being a stranger in a strange land, which make for an entertaining read.

A fascinating look at a country we know very little about other then what we read in the headlines.The author was very brave to enter this world she shares with us the lives of the people day to day suffering.This was a really interesting read the author shares her interactions her view of their lives.An author to follow through more of her life experiences.#netgalley#uofnebraskapress

From Chernobyl With Love documents the writers time working in the Ukraine as a journalist. Leaving California for the Baltics was a culture shock to say the least. Adventures and experiences abound from budget sky diving where the instructions are in Russian and you don't speak a lot of Russian; almost being arrested by government officials for a parcel containing orthodontic retainers and ibruprofen; visiting a retirement home for dancing bears in Bulgaria; almost dying from pancreatitis - and finding love (although not everlasting) on a bus returning from Chernobyl.

A fascinating account of a time of upheaval, political protest and personal development.

I received this book as a free ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review. The book was a quick read. It gives information, through the author's experiences, on Russian and Ukraine culture, lifestyle, etc. and what makes those countries and their people. One of the cons was the book lacked a bit of cohesiveness. It jumped around leaving the reader to try and fit the pieces together, never finishing the story and leaving the reader hanging. At other times, it felt repetitive. I think this book would appeal to those who are interested in Russia, Ukraine, Chernobyl literature, culture, lifestyle, and history.

Chernobyl has always fascinated me. As such, I was very excited to read this book. Fortunately, it lived up to the hype I'd built up in my mind.

Having read this story from the perspective of historians and Ukrainian citizens who lived in and near Pripyat, it was very interesting to see the disaster through the eyes of an American. I've read some complaints from people who believe that this story isn't for an American journalist to tell. That seems short-sighted, though, when you consider that Cengel lived in that area at the time and also married a Ukrainian man. Therefore, she has much more insight into this terrible moment in history than many may assume.

Whether this is your first book about Chernobyl or your 10th, it's well worth reading.

A gifted prose and a vivid account of life in former Soviet republics in the 90s and early 00s. Katya’s memoir is addictive and fascinating, although her views of the US and the USSR are skewed to a fault.

From Chernobyl With Love is a very lighthearted recount of the authors time spent in Latvia & the Ukraine in the 90's. The author was in a position to give us a first hand account of what was happening in these two places at a very interesting time in their history. What we get instead is half stories, with no real detail. A chapter starts with an issue such as the missing teenage soldiers in Chechnya but after giving brief details, the author changes tack on to some hardship she encountered without completing the story on her reporting in to original issue. The most detailed & consistent chapters were when she was in hospital. Disappointing.
I was given a copy of this book by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

As often happens in life as well as in reading, there are books linked to coincidences. In this case there are two coincidences, one linked to my past professional life, which gives me a fair knowledge of the Chernobyl tragedy, the other to my current professional life and to the publishing house for which I work, which published "Il grande saccheggio" (The Great Plundering), a wonderful book by journalist Francesca Mereu, about the fall of the Soviet Union and its consequences on today's world.
Cengel's book is, so to speak, a sequel to Mereu's, since it talks about the events of Ukraine - one of the nations born from the fall of the Soviet Union - the fall of society, industry and the economy that followed the great plundering. It also speaks of Chernobyl, of course, albeit in a very limited way, since this tragedy is the epitome of the general decay.

A quick read on a journalists perspective of living in a foreign land. Although interesting, it jumped around and wasn't very structured. But if you are interested in Chernobyl or culture and lifestyle of Russia, Ukraine, then you will most likely enjoy this read.

FROM CHERNOBYL WITH LOVE: REPORTING FROM THE RUINS OF THE SOVIET UNION by Katya Cengel is a fascinating and entertaining memoir.

Katya may have a Russian first name, but she is decidedly not Russian. Instead, she is a white woman who was born and raised in California. However, that fact didn't stop her from applying to a reporter position in the Latvia.

With both the enthusiasm and naivety of a young adult, Katya had absolutely no idea what she was in for. She didn't speak the language. She knew almost nothing about the politics of the area.

You would assume that someone who had grown up in California with it's temperate climate and easy access to health care and all other amenities of our first-world country would get the heck out of Eastern Europe after experiencing her first winter. Not Katya Cengel. She is made of sterner stuff than 99% of the rest of the citizens of the United States.

Reading about her exploits and adventures will hold readers riveted. From skydiving with questionable parachutes to visiting the restricted area at Chernobyl (twice) it is impossible to put this book down.

From Chernobyl With Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union has won multiple awards and each one is well deserved. This book has everything that a great read should have - with the added benefit that it is all true.

Travel, adventure, crime, corruption, food instability, harsh living conditions, friendship, love, lust and a medically life-threatening situation. This book has it all ... and more.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book asap.

I rate "From Chernobyl with Love" as 5 out of 5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️