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Seeking the truth about City 40
Paul O’Connor reviews a novel set in the 1950s in the Soviet Union, based on a real-life nuclear disaster, and finds it surprisingly entertaining. Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE HALF LIFE OF VALERY K. By Natasha Pulley. Bloomsbury Publishing. 370 pages. $28, hardcover. Fans of historical fiction get an extra discipline in The Half…
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A spy tale, stranger than fiction
Reviewed by Paul T. O’Connor THE BILLION DOLLAR SPY: A TRUE STORY OF COLD WAR ESPIONAGE AND BETRAYAL. By David E. Hoffman. Penguin Random House Audio. Read by Dan Woren. 11 hours and 54 minutes. $20. Also in hardcover from Doubleday. 262 pages. $28.95 Adolf Tolkachev despised his government, and for 35 years the American…
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Insights into history
How did that happen? How did the United States win World War II, only to find itself within months embroiled in a frightening, costly “cold war” with one of its former allies? Paul O’Connor looks at a book that provides some insights. By Paul T. O’Connor SIX MONTHS IN 1945: FROM WORLD WAR TO COLD…