Adam Higginbotham Midnight in Chernobyl & Challenger 2 Books Collection Set - Non Fiction - Paperback

Titles in This Set
Midnight in Chernobyl
Challenger

Details
Condition: Brand New
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781501134630 / 9781982176617
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Avid Reader Press

Overview
This two-book collection from journalist Adam Higginbotham brings together two of the most acclaimed narrative nonfiction accounts of modern disaster. Midnight in Chernobyl, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, unravels the secrecy and hubris behind the 1986 nuclear catastrophe. Challenger, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize, reconstructs the 1986 space shuttle tragedy with the same painstaking rigor. Both are New York Times bestsellers built on a decade of interviews and declassified records, offering readers a gripping, deeply human lens on two defining failures of the twentieth century.

About the Books
Adam Higginbotham has built a reputation as one of the finest narrative nonfiction writers working today, and this pairing showcases exactly why. Midnight in Chernobyl reconstructs the explosion of Reactor Number Four on April 26, 1986, tracing the technical failures, political cover-ups, and individual acts of courage that followed. Drawing on more than a decade of interviews and newly declassified archives, Higginbotham renders the disaster with the tension of a thriller while never losing sight of the human cost borne by engineers, firefighters, and ordinary citizens caught in the fallout. The book was named a New York Times, Time, and Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and it won the William E. Colby Award alongside the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. Challenger turns to NASA's space shuttle program, unpacking the institutional pressures, budget constraints, and engineering warnings that were overridden in the rush to launch on January 28, 1986. Higginbotham profiles the seven astronauts lost that day alongside the engineers who tried to sound the alarm, delivering a minute-by-minute reconstruction that critics have called a heart-pounding thriller. Challenger won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction and the Kirkus Prize, and was shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Together, these two books form a powerful study of how ambition, secrecy, and institutional blind spots can collide with catastrophic consequences, making this set essential reading for anyone drawn to history, science, and the true stories behind the headlines.

Key Benefits

• Two award-winning, New York Times bestselling nonfiction titles from acclaimed journalist Adam Higginbotham
• Meticulously researched accounts built on firsthand interviews and declassified archival records
• Reads with the pace and tension of a thriller while remaining rigorously factual
• Perfect for history buffs, science enthusiasts, and fans of investigative journalism
• Great gift idea for birthdays, holidays, or any nonfiction reader's bookshelf
• Brand new paperback set ready to add to any home or classroom library

Book-by-Book Guide
Midnight in Chernobyl — A decade-in-the-making investigation into the 1986 nuclear disaster, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.
Challenger — A minute-by-minute reconstruction of the 1986 space shuttle tragedy, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Nonfiction.

About the Author
Adam Higginbotham is a journalist whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Wired, GQ, and Smithsonian. Before turning to books, he was editor-in-chief of The Face and a contributing editor at The Sunday Telegraph in London. His debut book, Midnight in Chernobyl, became a New York Times bestseller and won the William E. Colby Award and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction. His follow-up, Challenger, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kirkus Prize. Higginbotham lives with his family in New York City.

Why You'll Love This Collection
Both meticulously reported and impossible to put down, this set pairs two of the most acclaimed disaster narratives in modern nonfiction. Whether for a history-loving friend, a holiday stocking stuffer, or your own summer reading stack, these award-winning bestsellers deliver unforgettable true stories of ambition, secrecy, and human resilience.

Please Note: This is the UK edition with the ISBN as listed; the cover may vary slightly from the image shown.