Andropov’s Cuckoo

This emotional novel is great for the historical fiction lovers. It was so authentic I would swear the author was either an Asian women or an ex-member of the KGB who’s chilling reputation is unquestionably deserved. Or both.

As much as the story is filled with innocent youthful fun that sprouts like weeds amid the necessary and closed off personalities of the citizenry, the author has not failed to paint his canvas with the persuasive dread and suspicion that lurks beneath the glib smiles and neighborly nods that camouflages secrets and oppressive dread.

We follow the exploits of our heroine as she matures with the dawning realization she wants to escape the life her parents lead and get to America to live freely. The compassionate narrator does a masterful job relating the years of horrors and pain she endured to reach her almost impossible and herculean goal including intimate survival in a KGB camp that most don’t survive, ala the Holocaust.