Sofka Zinovieff's novel about an Englishwoman's quest to find out the origins of the bitter feud that has split her dead husband's family is set in contemporary Athens, but takes us back to the tragic events of the Greek Civil War in the 1940s. Maud's mother-in-law Antigone has told Maud about the imprisonment and trial that led to her long exile in Russia, and Maud is beginning to understand just how deep the rift in her husband's family has been. Meanwhile Maud's daughter Tig has been hurt in a demonstration in Athens, and is only just out of hospital in time for Nikita's forty-day memorial. As a visitor from England joins the family to mourn, Antigone has one final secret to reveal.
Abridged by Sarah LeFanu

Readers: Lucy Briers and Ann Beach
Producer: Sara Davies. Show less