As a young doctor studying in Kiev in 1986, Mohamed Makhzangi found himself in the midst of a public health catastrophe when the Chernobyl nuclear plant melted down that spring. Through an array of brief vignettes, snippets of conversations, and fragmentary encounters, his “anti-memoir” of the event was written from the perspective of a witness and an outsider. After several years practicing medicine, Makhzangi switched careers to journalism and writing fiction. He has published several short story collections, and now divides his time between Egypt and Syria.