Monday, February 15, 2016

Chernobyl apples

"If you don't play, you lose. There was a Ukrainian woman at the market selling big red apples. 'Come get your apples! Chernobyl apples!' Someone told her not to advertise that, no one will buy them. 'Don't worry!' she says. 'They buy them anyway. Some need them for their mother-in-law, some for their boss.'"
— from Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, by Svetlana Alexievich.

I'll take two, please.

2 comments:

Melwyk said...

Perfection. I need to read this.

Isabella K said...

It's a terrific but devastating book — I'll write more about it soon. This is a rare moment of humour.