October, 1967. Yuri Gagarin sits atop a Proton rocket, ready to launch. After several turbulent years in the public eye, he's been chosen in secrecy to captain the Soviet Union's latest space spectacular: the first manned flight around the moon.

The second story in the Altered Space series, Public Loneliness is a detailed and imaginative look at a country and a space program with a curious schizophrenia regarding publicity and secrecy. Based on extensive research, it's also a lively and literary story that references familiar classics (like Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea) and forgotten landmarks of Soviet socialist realism, while also touching on universal themes of adventure, alcoholism, heroism and shame. It's a compelling look behind the massive posters at the all-too-real man who led the human race into space.

The titles in the Altered Space series are wholly separate narratives, but all deal with the mysteries of space and time, progress and circularity. Each one is an enso of words in which orbits of spacecraft, moons, planets, and people allow us fresh perspectives on the cycles of our own lives.

October, 1967. Yuri Gagarin sits atop a Proton rocket, ready to launch. After several turbulent years in the public eye, he's been chosen in secrecy to captain the Soviet Union's latest space spectacular: the first manned flight around the moon. The second story in the Altered Space series, Public Loneliness is a detailed and imaginative look at a country and a space program with a curious schizophrenia regarding publicity and secrecy. Based on extensive research, it's also a lively and literary story that references familiar classics (like Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea) and forgotten landmarks of Soviet socialist realism, while also touching on universal themes of adventure, alcoholism, heroism and shame. It's a compelling look behind the massive posters at the all-too-real man who led the human race into space.

"This great read truly sounds like Gagarin could have written this himself. It captures the spirit of the first spacefarer well, in the middle of a gripping story that had me wondering until the very last page. A great book!" - Francis French, co-author of Into That Silent Sea, In the Shadow of the Moon and Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon

"Really wonderfully written, evocative, and original in its approach to 'humanize' not only the space program but the Soviet side of the race." - Dr. Asif Siddiqi, Ph.D., author of The Red Rockets' Glare, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge and The Soviet Space Race with Apollo

"I was fascinated by the way you got into Gagarin's head and presented his thoughts for the reader. He comes across as the complex and thoughtful character that he was." - Dr. Andrew Jenks, Ph.D., author of The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin