FIRST COSMIC VELOCITY

In a nation built of secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of all is unraveling: The first Russian cosmonauts never really returned from space ...

In the USSR in 1964, an amazing fraud has been perpetrated under the nose of the world, and Premier Khrushchev himself. The Russian space program is a sham. For while the program has successfully launched five capsules into space, they have never successfully brought one back to earth. The men and women who have traveled the world on press tour, smiling and waving, are their other halves. Their twins. A stunningly inventive debut novel set in the Soviet space program during the Cold War.

Zach Powers is the author of the short story collection Gravity Changes, which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize.