Atomic Anna

Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum is a captivating narrative published by Grand Central Publishing in 2022, featuring 433 pages in English. This novel follows the intertwined lives of three generations of women as they embark on a time-traveling adventure to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and confront the complexities of their pasts. The story begins with Anna Berkova, a nuclear scientist whose life is upended when she is accidentally sent through time during the reactor meltdown in 1986.
Readers will discover a rich tapestry of themes including fantasy, historical elements, and the coming-of-age experiences of Anna’s daughter, Molly, and granddaughter, Raisa. As Anna navigates through different decades, she encounters challenges that force her to choose between saving her family and altering history. The narrative explores the implications of time travel and the moral dilemmas faced by these remarkable women, making it a thought-provoking read for those interested in science fiction and literary fiction alike.
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Named a Most Anticipated Book by Bookish
Named a Best Book of the Month by Buzzfeed
“The novel is masterfully plotted.”–New York Times Book Review
“Atomic Anna is a dazzling work of ingenuity and imagination.”―Téa Obreht,National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Inland
From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.
Three brilliant women.
Two life-changing mistakes.
One chance to reset the future.
In 1986, nuclear scientist Anna Berkova is asleep in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. The energy surge accidentally sends her through time. When she wakes up, she’s in 1992 and discovers Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Should Anna travel in time to save her daughter or stop Chernobyl?
Anna goes to ’60s Philadelphia, where Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik in a family full of secrets. Molly finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna. But when she meets volatile Viktor, their romance sets her life on a dangerous course. Anna then seeks out Molly’s daughter, Raisa, in the ’80s. Raisa is a lonely teen and math prodigy, who finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places. Each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to two impossible conclusions: Time travel is real and so is the strange old woman claiming to be her grandmother.
These three remarkable women must work together across time to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the twentieth century, but simply because you can change the past, does it mean you should?
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