Dr Battista spends most of his waking hours at the lab where he is assisted by a brilliant young researcher called Pyotr.

But Pyotr’s three year visa is set to expire in a few weeks and, fearful that it will not be renewed, Battista has suggested that his eldest daughter Kate might marry Pyotr and resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction – except hers.

After all it’s not as if Kate has a boyfriend or a bevy of admirers like her pretty sister, Bunny.

Kate responds with anger and humiliation, but her father is still determined to pursue his plan.

Anne Tyler's contemporary response to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is set in Baltimore where Dr Battista, an obsessively dedicated scientist, lives with his two daughters Kate and Bunny.

Read by Liza Ross

Abridged and Produced by Jill Waters

A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in June 2016. Show less