Cover art
Aldiss, Brian W. The Year Before Yesterday. St. Martin's 1988.

Aldiss, Brian W. The Year Before Yesterday [vt Cracken at Critical]
Divergence: 1935 CE
What if: Churchill was killed during a visit to Finland in 1935. Later, Germany gobbled up Western Europe but left the Zinoviev-led Soviet Union alone.
Summary: A Finnish composer finds the body of a girl alongside the road, and inside her backpack is an SF thriller about a different World War II.
Comments: The author "Jael Cracken" mentioned in the novel is the pen name originally used by Aldiss for the story "The Impossible Smile".
Published: As The Year Before Yesterday, Franklin Watts 1987 (0531150402BUY), St. Martin's 1988 (0312911122BUY).
Published: Revised edition as Cracken at Critical, Kerosina 1987; New English Library 1989 (0450500837).
Published: Combines previous works 1) Equator, Brown, Watson 1958; and 2) "The Impossible Smile", in Science Fantasy #72, #73 (May, June 1965) within a new framework.