Exploring the Impact of Radiation in Belarus: A Journey Along the Burning Edge

Rebecca Thrush: I loved the narrative and telling of the country side and cities.
I watch Ben’s YouTube channel and this is where I heard of this book.
You receive a history lesson while reading this book or watching his YouTube videos. Thanks Ben for writing your amazing adventure. The last sentence of the book will stay with me.

United States on Sep 17, 2023

FAUGERE CHRISTOPHE: Je suis un grand fan de Bald and bankrupt, et je connais la biélorussie, alors j'ai sauté sur ce livre. Le constat est décevant. Il ne se passe rien. Pas d'anecdotes, pas de sel, juste des journées vides et des rencontres la plupart insignifiantes... C'est un livre ennuyeux...

France on Aug 22, 2023

A.S.A.S.: Just like his Youtube Video's :-)

United States on Jun 28, 2023

AlexanderB: Es ist ein wirklich leichtes und angenehmes Buch zu lesen. Wer hier allerdings ein literarisches Meisterwerk erwartet, ist fehl am Platz. Das Buch liest sich schnell, lässt einen schmunzeln und ab und zu sogar was dazu lernen. Ideal für eine Zugfahrt.

Germany on May 24, 2023

Curlymouse: This account was so well written that I felt as if I was along on the journey. A whole new part of the world opened up to me. What courage it must have taken to travel alone
through the far outposts of the post-soviet countryside, relying on the hospitality of complete strangers who invariably turned out to be warm and decent people despite the terrible past and the present poverty they endured.

United States on Apr 08, 2023

Delta Hotel: If you (like me) are a loyal BaldAndBankrupt fan who really enjoys watching Ben's "Soviet Adventurising" then you'd absolutely love this book - as you're reading it you can actually hear Bald "narrating" the story of some of his most interesting adventures.

Honestly it's so enjoyable that I read the entire book in one weekend!

Highly recommended 10/10 - Come along for the adventure!

United Kingdom on Mar 17, 2023

Avery: If you like Bald & Bankrupt, you'll love this book.

Canada on Feb 09, 2023

Claudio: Arthur is a great vlogger and a good writer

Italy on Aug 25, 2022

Joanna D.: "Bald and Bankrupt" or "Arthur Chichester" is Benjamin Rich, a British Youtube vlogger who's gone viral with 3M subscribers following his handheld video of himself roaming the remote republics and backwaters of the former Soviet Union and satellite states.
With a bottle of guest vodka and friendly words in his decent Russian, he makes friends in the "the worst slum in all of Europe" (Lunik IX) or tries to find speakers of nearly-extinct Uralic languages sf When he's not tempting Fate, he's exploring the remains of Soviet architecture (luxuriuos apparatchik palaces gone to ruins, bus stations in Space Age Sixties turquoise and aluminum, still in use, and lots of surprisingly good mosaics of "the heroic people" as well as every little town's horribly sad World War II monument, with its long list of names, all same family in endless memorial for towns depopulated and empty of all but a few poverty-bound grandparents.

This book is very similar to the vlogs, so if you've become addicted to every single video upload, this is a written excerpt of his trips through the radioactive areas of poisoned Belarus, where the winds took the radioactive effluent from the Chernobyl...

United States on Aug 29, 2021

Anton K.: I was sincerely surprised by the deep understanding of our Belarusian mindset demonstrated by Arthur, being an Englishman.

I especially liked and fully agree with the author's understanding of:
- people's attitude towards Lukashenko. With all controversy like buying $1M cards when many people struggle to make $100 a month and most likely rigged elections, people still have a certain respect to him.
- memory about the Soviet times. It wasn't all negative and many people, especially the elderly have certain nostalgia for the times when they lived simple but happy lives, having their future certain and not having to worry about many things. Although no one in their right mind would like to get back to the USSR now, when we all know that there's so much more in the world to see and do.
- cult of the WW2 and fallen heroes. In part, it's planted by the government as a convinient ideology (we may be poor, but at least there's no war going on). But on the other hand, it's quite understandable for a nation that suffered so much and lost 25% of its population during the war.

I don't quite agree on some other things, such as:
- Arthur Chichester's representation of...

United States on Aug 11, 2019