Ludmila Ulitskaya's epic novel of dissident life in the Soviet Union follows three school friends through the decades after the death of Stalin. The boys are bound together by a love of Russian literature and, as they reach adulthood, become involved in samizdat - the production and distribution of texts banned by the state.

Ludmila Ulitskaya is one of Russia's best-selling and most celebrated authors. Her 14 novels include Medea and Her Children, The Funeral Party and The Kukotsky Case, which won the 2001 Russian Booker Prize. Her novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter won the 2007 Big Book Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker as well as the Russian Booker of the Decade. She previously worked as a geneticist and as artistic director of Moscow's Hebrew Theatre. The Big Green Tent was first published in Russia in 2010 and in an English translation by Polly Gannon in 2015.

Read by Rachael Stirling
Abridged by Sara Davies from the translation by Polly Gannon
Produced by Mair Bosworth. Show less