Rick Furmanek is an American author that lived in Tucson, Arizona. He was a missionary who held a master’s degree in religion, and He helped start the Desert Springs Presbyterian Church in Tucson in 1987. While living in Tucson, Arizona, he started to manage a band called the Threshing Floor, for several years. However, he decided to move his family to Moscow, Russia to endeavor investing in a hotel business managed by his brother in-law living in there. After, struggling to assimilate to Russian culture, he moved back to the United States with his family in 1994. After arriving, he decided to write a novel describing their lives and experiences as an American family moving to Russia after the collapse of communism.