First Cosmic Velocity

June 1, 2019
The Soviet space program is only half successful in Powers' debut novel. It's 1964, and though the Russians have figured out how to launch their cosmonauts into space, they can't figure out how to get them back down. In order to hide this frightening secret from the world--even from Premier Nikita Khrushchev himself--the space program, led by a man known only as the Chief Designer, recruits pairs of twins. One twin is trained to go into space, never to return, while the other prepares to play the returning hero and recite lines about what it feels like to be in zero gravity ("at first like falling...and then you float"). One of the left-behind twins, Leonid, begins to doubt the project as he's whisked around on a press tour by Ignatius, a mysterious figure charged with keeping the fake cosmonauts in line. Despite the attempted intervention of Western spies, the coverup somehow holds together. But the Chief Designer runs out of twins before he figures out how to make a fully functional spacecraft. And what's to become of the left-behind twins down on Earth, doomed to live lies? Powers' writing style is delicate and almost otherworldly; as in his collection of stories, Gravity Changes (2017), each word is carefully chosen, every sentence deliberately flowing into the next. Unlike the stories in that collection, this novel feels more like it's drifting through space than moving along a clear orbit. Even so, scenes centered on the characters' emotional lives are touching, and the dreamy tone brings a touch of fantasy without pushing too far into whimsy. A lovely and hopeful story from a promising writer.

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July 15, 2019
Powers’s entertaining and winning debut novel about the 1960s space race launches from an intriguing premise: that the Soviet Union covered up fatal rocket misfires by recruiting groups of twins as cosmonauts—one to pilot the ill-fated space capsule, the other to bask in the glory of a faked hero’s return. Set primarily in Star City, Russia, in 1964, Powers’s story centers around the earthbound experiences of Nadya (whose twin burned up on re-entry years before) and Leonid (whose brother, the last twin, is currently orbiting the earth), through which Powers refracts glimpses of the competitive Soviet space program and its personnel, the sometimes absurd politics of the Khrushchev era, and the process by which a cold-hearted recruiter pried the twin Leonids away from their family in 1950s Ukraine. Powers (Gravity Changes) endows his stoical, driven characters with distinctive personalities and the capacity to reflect philosophically on their charade, as when Leonid says, “Maybe our individual personalities are just the areas in which we failed to copy someone else.” Powers’s deadpan depiction of the ruse that drives his tale and the historical figures duped by it will give readers pause to wonder if it really is that improbable.

November 1, 2019

DEBUT In 1961, President Kennedy inaugurated the space race with the Soviets in a speech setting the bold national agenda of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth." That last phrase is a key plot point in this accomplished, emotionally rich first novel about the Soviet space program in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Blending history and fiction, the novel imagines a Soviet space program fully able to launch men and women into space--but unable to bring them back safely. Their solution? Soviet cosmonauts will all be twins. One goes into space and the twin stays on the ground and is presented to the public as the triumphantly returned cosmonaut. As unlikely as this premise may sound, Powers (Gravity Changes) creates a compelling, deeply engaging story about the value of human life under the pressure of politics. The surviving cosmonauts miss their siblings intensely, but they also embrace the necessity of this enterprise, and they answer the call of duty with courage and honor. Powers skillfully handles the complex emotions and relationships among the individuals in this top-secret program, which makes for a very satisfying read. VERDICT An impressively realized work that will be welcomed by those interested in literary fiction, Cold War history, and early space programs.--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

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July 1, 2019
Leonid and Nadya are celebrated as pioneering Russian cosmonauts, heroes whose likenesses adorn state-sponsored teacups and whose publicity tours draw legions of adoring admirers. There is just one problem: Leonid and Nadya have never been in space. They were recruited along with their identical twins by the Chief Designer, an obsessively competitive Gulag survivor determined to win the Cold War space race despite his program's dangerous failings, namely, that they've yet to return a cosmonaut safely to earth. A cover-up finds the surviving twins adopting their siblings' identities to serve as symbols of national pride. Even Khrushchev is unaware of the truth and willingly volunteers his dog for the next launch. In his debut novel, Powers masterfully evokes postwar Russia and his inventive plot offers moments of tenderness and grace along with interjections of dark humor. Themes of family, home, and identity are explored with great pathos and psychological acuity. The dichotomy of national ambition versus the day-to-day heroism of citizens is a timely and timeless reminder of what makes a nation great. For fans of Anthony Marra.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)