Russian Spring — Norman Spinrad

Set against a background of world political and economic upheaval, Russian Spring is a powerful saga of ardent dreamers and star-crossed lovers, an exhilarating and thought-provoking novel by the award-winning author of Little Heroes and Child of Fortune.

Trapped in a low-level job with the stagnating American space program, engineer Jerry Reed reluctantly moves to Paris, where Common Europe and the Soviet Union have joined to create a renaissance in space exploration. There he finds not only a real chance to reach orbit, but a society far different from anything he imagined--brave, bold, freethinking, and vigorous.

With Jerry's help humanity has a chance to reach the stars... until a battered, declining America launches itself against its former allies. Loyalties torn, his family's happiness imperiled, Jerry must make decisions that will resonate for decades in his dreamer's soul...and in a world hurtling toward the brink of nuclear frost.