Losing Laika

The portrayal of a downed U-2 pilot that opens Losing Laika is fictional but nonetheless respectful. Dickinson personally knew my dad. Moreover, what follows makes for an engrossing historical read about life on the other side of the Cold War."e; - Francis Gary Powers, Jr. Losing Laika is a Cold War literary novel that asks the question, What happens to a Soviet Everyman--Petro Kondradtovych Kravets, a military optics technician--once he removes the camera from Francis Gary Powers' downed U-2 plane?Pyotr and colleague Ivan are life-long friends, both having lost their fathers in World War II, or the "e;Great Patriotic War."e; As experienced optics technicians, their work for the Ministry of Military Aeronautics carries on their fathers' legacy of defending the Motherland. Year after year, Pyotr witnesses the triumphs of Soviet technology: the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1; Lunik-3 pictures from the dark side of the moon; and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin circling the earth. Pyotr knows in the Cold War competition with America, the Soviet people are holding their own and a better future awaits his toddler son, Andrei. Or does it?