‘A searing testament to the power of journalism, truth-telling, and a story to help us remember our shared humanity … an urgent read.’
Sarah Sentilles, author of Draw Your Weapons
‘Fallout reveals the inside story of one of history’s most astonishing journalistic scoops, the cynical government cover-up it circumvented, and the extraordinary effort it took to bring the terrible costs of the atomic age to light.’
Adam Higginbotham, author of Midnight in Chernobyl
‘John Hersey’s ‘Hiroshima’ has been a legend of American journalism since its first appearance in The New Yorker, and the story it tells, and how that story got told, was one we thought we knew. Now Lesley Blume shows us how little we really knew about Hersey and ‘Hiroshima’ both – and gives us a new and truly heroic story of censorship defied, taboos broken, truth sought, and editor and author committed together to serious purpose. This extraordinary book can help restore the morale of American journalism at a time when it badly needs it.’
Adam Gopnik, author of A Thousand Small Sanities
‘In Fallout, Lesley Blume brilliantly tells the story of how John Hersey made his epic book ‘Hiroshima,’ which had a profound effect on the way people came to regard atomic warfare. But the memory of his book has grown dim, and Fallout serves as an essential reminder of the lessons we once learned from Hersey’s reporting.’
William J. Perry, 19th US Secretary of Defense
‘[A] thrilling behind-the-scenes account of John Hersey’s seminal 1946 report on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima … This enthralling, fine-grained chronicle reveals what it takes to cut through ‘dangerously anesthetizing’ statistics and speak truth to power.’ STARRED REVIEW
Publisher’s Weekly
‘Blume uncovers the fascinating backstory to perhaps the most influential piece ever published by an American magazine: John Hersey’s 1946 report on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. A work of historical excavation … [her] narrative never flags in its drama.’ STARRED REVIEW
Kirkus Reviews
‘Fallout is gripping history. A big, important story; deeply researched and well told.’
Dan Rather
‘Journalism at its finest … Blume’s tight, fast-moving book, pegged to the 75th anniversary of the bombing, tells Hersey’s story as he raced to gather sources, wrote in absolute secrecy, and then published a deeply empathetic, almost unbelievably distressing article.’
Bloomberg
Praise for Everybody Behaves Badly:
‘Fiendishly readable … a deeply, almost obsessively researched biography of a book, supported by a set of superb endnotes worth reading in their own right.’
The Washington Post
Praise for Everybody Behaves Badly:
‘Blume’s deeply researched ‘backstory’ enhances the depth [of The Sun Also Rises] and restates its very real significance … What happened between those two points in Hemingway’s life, from being a nobody to very much a somebody, is reconstructed with authority and insight.’ STARRED REVIEW
Booklist
Praise for Everybody Behaves Badly:
“In this revealing new study, Blume shows that a series of competing internal and external pressures helped birth Hemingway’s now-legendary debut roman à clef, The Sun Also Rises… Blume has carved a mountain of original research into a riveting tale of Hemingway’s literary, romantic, and publishing travail.’ STARRED REVIEW
Publishers Weekly
‘Blume skillfully reconstructs the players involved and the hidden history of one of the greatest cover-ups in modern history.’
Town & Country
‘Blume [is] a tireless researcher and beautiful writer, who moves through her narrative with seeming effortlessness — a trick that belies the skill and hard labour required to produce such prose … Fallout is a warning without being a polemic … a book of serious intent that is nonetheless pleasant to read. There are knowable reasons for this, including Blume’s flawless paragraphs; her clear narrative structure; her compelling stories, subplots and insights.’
William Langewiesche, The New York Times
‘It is a brilliantly conceived and impeccably researched book … [A] testament of the courage of a free press etc.’
Lew Whittington, The New York Journal of Books
‘Blume’s meticulously researched tale of the lengths to which a government will go to keep the truth from reaching its citizens might be exactly what everyone should be reading at this deeply worrisome juncture … The book is timely on its own, however, as the idea that a democracy’s highest officials might use verbal sleights of hand to distract citizens from a crisis has been cropping up of late … is at its most gripping when Blume describes the article’s immediate, dramatic impact on a public that had been kept in the dark about the human devastation in Hiroshima … It’s clear that Blume poured herself into this project. For a sense of the sheer amount of work that went into it, just read her acknowledgments. Where most authors’ acknowledgments are heartfelt but brief, Blume’s run seven pages. Her endnotes take up a whopping 64 pages … [C]ompelling.’
Katie Hafner, The Washington Post
‘As a history lover, I find that Fallout gives powerful insights into the way that a government can weave a story to justify the actions it takes, and also into the fearless reporting about what really happened in Hiroshima. Blume’s tireless reporting gives important context to an understudied slice of US history.’
Andrea King Collier, The Christian Science Monitor
‘[Fallout] is as riveting as it is disturbing.’
Fiona Capp, Sydney Morning Herald
‘Meticulously researched … compelling…It’s clear that Lesley Blume poured herself into this project.’
Katie Hafner, Independent
‘Fallout gives the perfect backstory on an article, and an event, that reshaped the world.’
Brian Dale, LSJ Online
‘Absorbing.’
Dan Hitchens, UnHerd
