Ussa: the Past is Another Country: a Novel of Alternative History

USSA: The Past is Another Country is alternative history; that is, it is about what might have been ?
The story is seen through the eyes of Alex Nurov, the 17 year old son of a prominent Russian father and a beautiful American mother living in the USSA, a socialist America that has become part of the Soviet empire since the Great Uprising (a spontaneous socialist transformation of America from its evil and decadent past into a socialist utopia). Alex?s mother envisions a great future for her son who has been admitted to the prestigious Moscow University. She is willing to use her beauty and almost mystical charm to make sure her hopes come to fruition. His father, somewhat disgraced for marrying an American, is the Vice Minister of Information and author of the DAL system, which will ultimately become the depository of all books, leaving the party in a position to prevent the citizenry from being infected with the virus of politically incorrect thought that is transmitted through unauthorized books. Success of the DAL system is Alex?s father?s ticket to complete political rehabilitation.
Growing up in Charleston, S. C. and a beautiful barrier island nearby, Alex has to deal with his dual ancestry while struggling the find a way to fit in in a world in which snobbery and a general view that Americans are lazy and parasitic and in which being a true Russian is politically and socially the only way to the top. A The fact that his father is important and distantly related to the General Secretary makes for a very comfortable life for Alex and offers the potential for a great future but the world they live in is one in which Marxist orthodoxy is unquestioned and suspicion and jealousy make everyone a potential informer.
Alex is infatuated with fellow student Martina Antipova, a true Russian and the epitome of soviet womanhood. He takes her to the great hollowed out sand dune that presides over the north end of the barrier island like the volcano on some Pacific island. The dune is the place ? Alex?s secret place ?where he reads his mysteries and daydreams far from the prying eyes of student block commander Gregorov.
Alex?s unquestioning view of the world and the history of America gradually unravels when he discovers something he calls The Book. Thinking at first that it is one of the mysteries he loves to read ? scrawled across the title page is ?The Plot to Kill Paul Creticos? ?he soon realizes that The Book is something quite different from one of his mysteries. Is it the ravings of a lunatic? The author, Father Piotr Babulieski, raves about the Army of Jesus Christ. Who is the Jesus Christ? A general?
Alex?s knows he should turn The Book over to his father. Or at least destroy it. Keeping it and being drawn into a quest to prove that it is full of lies ? or that everything he has been taught is a lie ?is what The Past is Another Country is about.
Praise for The Past is Another Country from the 1988 hardcover edition (Simon & Schuster)

?Its strange luminosities are profound?a contribution to the contemporary literature of apocalypse.? ?Christian Science Monitor

?Risk taking?passionate?authentic?deeply imagined.? ?Kirkus Reviews

?This story is told not only well, but well nigh beautifully?one of those rare birds: a creative work that is also an important work.? ?San Jose Mercury News

?An incandescent first novel.??Washington Post

?A finely detailed futuristic fantasy??Chicago Tribune