I SAW is a literary-documentary novel by one of Ukraine’s leading contemporary authors, Volodymyr Shovkoshytnyi—a witness to the Chornobyl catastrophe and a selfless participant in the Chornobyl cleanup. In this moving and deeply personal work, Shovkoshytnyi seeks to unite the painful literature of memory with the objective literature of fact, believing that no genre exists apart from life itself, which encompasses all.
 
The book interweaves the testimonies of eyewitnesses to the world’s worst man-made disaster with the stories of those who risked everything to contain it. Readers follow the fates of the heroes, while also gaining a clear-eyed analysis of the technological, economic, social, and medical consequences of the Chornobyl accident. The narrative does not stop at tragedy—it also examines the prospects for renewal and the return of contaminated lands to productive use.
 
Complementing Shovkoshytnyi’s words is the powerful visual perspective of renowned photographer Yuriy Kosin, himself a participant in the Chornobyl cleanup, whose images offer a profound meditation on the post-Chornobyl world.
 
Volodymyr Shovkoshytnyi, Yuriy Kosin
Kyiv, 2016
UKRAINIAN PRIORITY
ISBN: 978-617-7398-04-1