Matthew Brzezinski
Read by Charles Stransky

Based on extensive research in the US and newly opened archives in the former USSR, Red Moon Rising tells the story of five extraordinary months in the history of technology and the rivalry between two superpowers. It takes us inside the Kremlin and introduces the Soviet engineer Korolev, the charismatic, politically-minded visionary who motivated Khrushchev to support what others dismissed as a ridiculous program. Korolev is virtually unknown to most Americans, yet it is because of him that NASA exists, that college loan programs were started in the US, and that Kennedy and Johnson became presidents.

Character driven, suspenseful, and dramatic, Red Moon Rising unveils the politics, people, science, and mindset behind a critical and transformative world event.

The writing is fast-paced and crisp, the stakes high and the tension palpable from the first pages of this high-flying account of the early days of the space race....”
      —Publishers Weekly starred review (HC)

MATTHEW BRZEZINSKI is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and former foreign correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of Casino Moscow: A Tale of Greed and Adventure on Capitalism’s Wildest Frontier. He lives in Washington, D.C.