A motherless young girl becomes a great ballerina and a favorite of the Russian imperial family but when the revolution shatters the country, her life is changed forever.

In the small town of Rusty Nail, Minnesota, in the early 1950s, musically talented ten-year-old Franny wants to take advanced piano lessons from newcomer Olga Malenkov, a famous Russian musician suspected of being a communist spy by gossipy members of the community.

When Andrei Kaplan's older brother, Dima, insists that Andrei return to Moscow to care for their ailing grandmother, Andrei must take stock of his life in New York. His girlfriend has stopped returning his text messages. His dissertation adviser is dubious about his job prospects. It's the summer of 2008, and his bank account is running dangerously low. Perhaps a few months in Moscow are just what he needs. A wise, sensitive novel about Russia, exile,...

Circus saxophonist Vladimir Ivanoff suddenly defects from his touring troupe in that temple of "Western decadence," Bloomingdale's. He wins asylum and moves into the crowded Harlem flat of Black security guard Lionel Witherspoon. Although Vladimir learns that life in America can be cold and even painful, he grows to love what seems to him a strange and wondrous land.