“I watch as a cloud of smoke and fire rises up into the sky, trying to touch the universe with its burning, swollen finger. I can’t look for longer than a few moments. My eyes feel like they’re on fire.”
Young Yuri Rubinov’s life goal has always been to go to space. Well, it has been since his Papa told him about the Sputnik 1 satellite project on the way home from school.
Nicknamed ‘Mechtatel’ by his family for his day-dreaming, Yuri must navigate young love, school bullies and his older brother as he builds his very own cardboard rocket in his front room, all to have a chance at securing a place on the Soviet Union’s Sputnik 1 launch crew – that may or may not exist.
With his trusty one-eyed bear Mishka by his side, nothing will stop his literal ascent to the stars, not even the strange explosion from the Mayak ‘Radio Factory’ where his Papa works.
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Andrew L. Cook 