Stepping Down From a Star

Available in eBook format from: Apple Books and Google Play,
Barnes & Noble Nook – $3.99.

A dramatic true story of the first Soviet female diplomat that decided to remain in Washington rather than return to USSR.

In August 1978 the wife of a first secretary at the Soviet embassy defected to the United States with her two young children, seeking opportunity for them all to control their own lives. For seven years she lived under the assumed name of Alexandra Costa until the publicized return of defector Vitaly Yurchenko prompted her to talk about the way defectors are treated by the CIA.

Costa writes candidly about the reasons for her defection, her previous life in the Soviet Union and at the embassy, and her struggles as a single parent attending an American business school and then starting her own business. Only a strong and determined person could have survived the uncertainties and pitfalls she faced. The book is the last step along Costa’s road to the freedom she sought, the freedom to talk about her past honestly.

310 pages