Igor Courage of Chernobyl's Child

When the Chernobyl reactor melted down in 1986, massive levels of radiation were unleashed on the former Soviet Union and created a generation of over a million deformed children. Igor Pavlovets was one of the first to be born. He has stunted legs and no right arm, and when his parents saw his deformities they abandoned him at a state orphanage, where he spent the first seven years of his life. As he grew into a child of charm and intelligence, the orphanage staff hid Igor from the authorities, who would have transferred him to a mental institution when he was four. Then the British charity, Chernobyl Children Life Line, which receives a donation for every copy of this book to be sold, offered him a one-way ticket to Britain, to receive a bionic arm. The book, written by a "Daily Express" feature writer who was highly commended in the 1993 British Press Awards, tells Igor's story.