You could say it takes a wild imagination to picture a truly open society—one where freedom of expression and democracy are paramount, and where no one holds a monopoly on the truth. Envisioning such a world is the starting point for the Open Society Foundations’ work. And often, it is the arts that make manifest that vision, lending form to our goals and ideals.

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The Paris Review published excerpts from Svetlana Alexievich's Voices from Chernobyl:

"He started to change—every day I met a brand-new person. The burns started to come to the surface. In his mouth, on his tongue, his cheeks—at first there were little lesions, and then they grew. It came off in layers—as white film . . . the color of his face . . . his body . . . blue . . . red . . . gray-brown. And it’s all so very mine! It’s impossible to describe! It’s impossible to write down! Or even to get over. The only thing that saved me was that it happened so fast; there wasn’t any time to think, there wasn’t any time to cry."

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