The Line »

Olga Grushin a Granta Best Young American Novelist, won the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award for The Dream Life of Sukhanov. She was also a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction Fiction and short- listed for the Orange Award for New Writers. The Dream Life of Sukhanov was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and one of the Washington Post's Top 10 Books of 2006.

Grushin's stunning debut drew praise that placed her in the top rank of young literary voices. Now she returns with that rarity: a second novel even more dazzling than her first. The line: the universal symbol of scarcity and bureau­cracy that exists wherever petty officials are let loose to abuse their powers. The line begins to form on the whispered rumor that a famous exiled composer is returning to Moscow to conduct his last symphony. Tickets will be limited. Nameless faces join the line, jostling for preferred position. But as time passes and the seasons change and the ticket kiosk remains shuttered, these anonymous souls take on individual shape. Unlikely friendships are forged, long-buried memories spring to life, and a year-long wait is rewarded with unexpected acts of kindness that ease the bleakness of harshly lived lives. A disparate gaggle of strangers evolves into a community of friends united in their desire to experience music they have never been allowed to hear. The Line is a transformative novel that speaks to the endurance of the human spirit even as it explores the ways in which we love-and what we do for love.

The New York Times - Elif Batuman

One of the pleasures of reading this book is its resonance with earlier literary works. Grushin's riffs on night skies recall Pasternak's lyrics; the social system of the line evokes the group dynamics in Andrei Platonov's novel The Foundation Pit. Grushin, who left Russia as a teen ager, has a fluent and inspired English style, marked by only very occasional infelicities…with a marvelous talent for appear ances and atmospheres…