For years I’ve been working on a historical novel, set mostly in
the 1950s, which follows the adventures of two brothers, born
in East Prussia, who end up on opposite sides of the US/USSR race
to build thermonuclear weapons. While none of the characters
resemble members of my own family, many of the larger events
were inspired by my father’s experience testing nuclear weapons.

I found a key to the overarching story in an intriguing incident related
by David Holloway in his book Stalin and the Bomb. Eager to impress
the Chinese communists with Soviet strength, Stalin arranged to have their leadership “shown a film that was said to be of a Soviet nuclear test. This was weeks before the first Soviet atomic bomb test took place.”

After a variety of false starts I’m close to a finished manuscript that
satisfies me, titled The Disloyalists. I’ll soon be searching for a publisher
and will report on my progress.