Pass: bbc4free.blogspot.com
It's the summer of 1985. Gorbachev is in the Kremlin and the first breezes of change are in the air. But for now, Anatoly Pavlovich Sukhanov (Tolya) is at the height of his prestige. He is the best-known art critic in the Soviet Union - editor-in-chief of Art of the World - with a grace-and-favour Moscow apartment, a dacha, and a chauffeur-driven Volga.
His wife, Nina, is the daughter of Malinin, the most famous 'approved' artist in the Soviet Union, twice-winner of the Lenin Prize. But at a retrospective of Malinin's work, things start to unravel for Tolya.
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. Olga lives in Washington D.C.
"A contemporary novel so good, I felt like buying 10 copies and sending them to friends"
The Independent
"It breathes new life into American literary fiction"
The Washington Post
Abridged by Jeremy Osborne
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.
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