Books have to do with content that potentially enriches mind and soul of the people who read, and allows them to connect with the author and other persons in many diverse ways - which is more important, and the core and the gift that a book can bring. This is achieved by respecting very unique ways - the author's voice, for instance. No matter the book, style is that particular way to say things, from a very unique perspective, even across languages.
I have to tell you that I felt an unavoidable 'thirst' to keep reading until the end, and it has been too long for me without such sensation coming from a book! I 'drank' this story sooner than expected! ( )

The beginning of the book is in the voice of an old man who knows his time on this earth is short--and he wants to get this story told. If you have ever been in the company of an octogenarian you will be smiling at the back and forth way he speaks--forgetting then remembering--but bound and determined to get his own way! He ultimately decides that since he is having so much trouble focusing and he knows that he could never write the whole down in time--he uses a dictaphone.

I defy you to pick up this book and be able to put it down. This story is based on a true story told to the author by a protagonist in the story (the author tells you all about this after the book ends)and what happens to Youriko, which is not her real name, but one she chose, will stagger your imagination. It all starts in the USSR--when the KGB was feared and rightfully so.

One thing is for certain, Youriko was not a cuckoo--far from it!! ( )

Andropov’s Cuckoo

A dying man recounts the story of the most amazing person he has ever met, a brilliant, Soviet linguist whom he calls Youriko. It is a tale of love, daring-do, spies and danger set in Japan, Germany, Turkey, the USA, Canada and the UK, but mostly in the Soviet Union of the Seventies.
Two girls, born thousands of miles apart in Kazakhstan and Japan just after World War II, meet and are like peas in a pod. They also get on like sisters and keep n touch for the rest of their lives.
However, one wants to help her battle-scarred country and the other wants to leave hers for the West. They dream up a daring, dangerous plan to achieve both goals, which Andropov, the chief of the Soviet KGB, is told about. He dubs it Operation Youriko and it is set in motion, but does it have even the remotest chance of success?
Andropov’s Cuckoo is based on a ‘true story’ related to the author by one of the protagonists. ( )