SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
A book called "Voices From Chernobyl" may be the work that Svetlana Alexievich is best known for. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature this week. And there's a section in her book in which a survivor tells what the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl did even to the survivors nearby.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Reading) We're afraid of everything. We're afraid for our children and for our grandchildren, who don't exist yet. They don't exist, and we're already afraid. People smile less; they sing less at holidays. The landscape changes because instead of fields, the forest rises up again. But the national character changes, too. Everyone's depressed; it's a feeling of doom. Chernobyl is a metaphor, a symbol. And it's changed our everyday life and our thinking.
SIMON: The words of Nadjiesda Borakova (ph) who survived Chernobyl, as read by an actor. The meltdown occurred nearly 30 years ago. Wildlife is back. Human life is not. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.