The Homecoming

Written by Olga Grushin. You can find all of human life at railway stations and Platform 3 is a set of stories inspired by hanging around them. Sweet Talk commissioned three writers to explore the theme: all the places, destinations, thoughts, hopes and fears. The people - or lack of them.

Gregory is a successful New York businessman who has returned to Russia for the first time in many years to visit his mother. He takes a trip out to his mother's dacha in the country and then heads for the local station. He has an urgent plane to catch. Moscow is only two hours away - but only if the train comes. And while he waits, he has a strange encounter...

Olga Grushin was born in Moscow in 1971 and spent her childhood in Moscow and Prague. In 1989 she became the first Soviet citizen to enrol for a full-time degree in the United States while retaining Soviet citizenship. In 2006 she was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists in 2007. She has published two novels: The Dream Life of Sukhanov (2006) and The Concert Ticket (published in the US as The Line) in April 2010. 'The Homecoming' is her first story for radio. Olga lives in Washington D.C.

Reader: Alan Cox

Producer: Jeremy Osborne
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.