Peter Nevsky and the True Story of the Russian Moon Landing; A Novel

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. [10], 499, [3] pages. Publisher's ephemera laid in. This was the author's seventh book. John Calvin Batchelor (born April 29, 1948) is an American author and host of The John Batchelor Show. Based at AM 770 WABC radio in New York for five years from early 2001 to September 2006, the show was syndicated nationally on the ABC radio network. On October 7, 2007, Batchelor returned to radio on WABC, and later to other large market stations on a weekly basis. As of November 30, 2009, Batchelor was once again hosting a nightly show on WABC, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern Time and heard in many major markets across the country, now on the Westwood One network. The program for a time was heard seven nights a week. Batchelor describes the show as a "news magazine" since he does not take phone calls from listeners but does a series of interviews with guests and reporters. Derived from a Kirkus review: Sweeping, amusing, and quite moving mock epic about a Russian spacecraft that shoots for the moon 60 hours before Apollo II lifts off from Houston--and then slowly runs out of luck when entering lunar orbit. Batchelor's staggeringly authentic re-creation of what purports to be the Russian space program matches his well-received earlier successes with historical fiction. Here, intaglio craftsmanship shows everywhere. A raw innocent, cosmonaut Peter Nevsky, 22, arrives at Starry Town, the USSR's skimpy space center, and finds himself entangled in family politics that bring on a national disaster. Peter's father was the finest Russian air ace of WW II. Batchelor spells out marvelously the many competing directorates in Russian politics circa 1963 and shows how rival agencies in a madhouse of surreal allegiances could launch secret high-weaponry wars among themselves without upsetting the nation. The Swiftian final deathtrip to the moon is unforgettable.