Stalking the Atomic City : Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl

Author: Kamysh, Markiyan

Ukraine

Published on 2 January 2025 by PUSHKIN PRESS in the United Kingdom.

'Remarkable' GUARDIAN
'Mesmerising' TELEGRAPH
'A voice that must be heard' PATTI SMITH

An exhilarating, immersive journey into the Exclusion Zone of Chornobyl with the disaffected adventurers who illegally stalk its ruins

Amidst the toxic desolation of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, a subculture has sprung up. They call themselves 'stalkers': wild adventurers who sneak past border controls to get lost in this apocalyptic environment of dense swampland and rusted ruins. Markiyan Kamysh is one, and here he takes us on a hallucinatory journey into an alien world.

With reckless energy, Kamysh tells of escapes from the police, hedonistic nights in bombed-out buildings and the spectral beauty that got him hooked on returning to the Zone. Brash, immersive and ecstatic, this is a singular document of a dystopian reality.