Olga Grushin, geboren 1971 in Moskau, verbrachte ihre ersten Schuljahre in Prag, wohin die Familie aus Protest gegen das Sowjetregime gezogen war. Ab 1981 lebte sie wieder in Moskau und studierte später Kunstgeschichte am Puschkin Museum der Schönen Künste und Journalismus an der Staatlichen Universität. 1989 übersiedelte sie mit Hilfe eines Stipendiums der Emory University in Atlanta in die USA und machte dort nach nur vier Jahren als erste russische Studentin an einem amerikanischen College ihren Abschluss mit summa cum laude. Danach hat sie u.a. als Dolmetscherin für Jimmy Carter gearbeitet. Ihre Erzählungen erschienen in zahlreichen amerikanischen Literaturzeitschriften. Olga Grushin ist seit 2002 amerikanische Staatsbürgerin und lebt mit ihrer Familie in Washington, D.C.

On any given morning, on the street corners of a Russian city, little kiosks suddenly appear. As soon as their shutters open, a queue forms, men and women lining up in the hope of a little bit of luxury: a pair of silk stockings or a box of chocolates. One morning news spreads that the exiled composer, Selinsky, will be returning to the city for one concert only, and there is one kiosk, somewhere, selling tickets to this most magical event of the year. So begins the story of a family, in which a ticket to Selinsky's concert means everything: for Sergei, the father, it holds the promise of an affair with another woman; for his wife, Anna, it offers the hope of winning back her faithless husband; for their son, Alexander, it means the possibility of escaping to the West.The Concert Ticket is a fabulously told story of love, longing and escape, of beauty in a world of repression, and of a family at the mercy of each other and the times in which they live.

On any given morning, on the street corners of a Russian city, little kiosks suddenly appear. As soon as their shutters open, a queue forms, men and women lining up in the hope of a little bit of luxury: a pair of silk stockings or a box of chocolates. One morning news spreads that the exiled composer, Selinsky, will be returning to the city for one concert only, and there is one kiosk, somewhere, selling tickets to this most magical event of the year. So begins the story of a family, in which a ticket to Selinsky's concert means everything: for Sergei, the father, it holds the promise of an affair with another woman; for his wife, Anna, it offers the hope of winning back her faithless husband; for their son, Alexander, it means the possibility of escaping to the West.The Concert Ticket is a fabulously told story of love, longing and escape, of beauty in a world of repression, and of a family at the mercy of each other and the times in which they live.