Voices from Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich — Belarus's Nobel Prize-winning oral historian collected testimonies from survivors of the Chernobyl disaster, which devastated a large part of her country. The book is not about Minsk specifically but about the Belarusian experience of living through catastrophe. Essential reading for understanding the country.
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich — Alexievich's other great work collects the testimonies of Soviet women who fought in World War II. Belarus contributed hundreds of thousands of women to the war effort, and the Belarusian dimension of the fighting — partisan resistance, mass civilian death, the destruction of Minsk — is woven through the book.
Ordinary Men by Christopher Browning — An account of a German police battalion that committed mass murder in Nazi-occupied Poland and Belarus. Not about Minsk specifically, but essential context for understanding what happened in this city between 1941 and 1944, when the Jewish population of Minsk was nearly entirely exterminated.
The Gates of Europe by Serhii Plokhy — A history of Ukraine that illuminates the broader story of the borderlands between Poland, Russia, and Belarus. Helps explain why Minsk has changed hands so many times and why Belarusian identity is so fiercely contested.