Young Hugh Casthorpe goes on a short visit to a sanatorium in the mountains, and finds that he cannot leave. Is it because he has a respiratory disease which the sanatorium is supposed to cure, or is it because he has fallen helplessly in love with another patient, a beautiful married woman?

Either way, Hugh becomes a long-term patient. Trapped on this enchanted and sinister mountain, Hugh meets and learns from his fellow patients, gets acquainted with another constant companion, Death, and explores the dark and dangerous aspects of love.

Thomas Mann’s novel is a literary icon, a tragi-comedy, a masterpiece of deep thought, sly irony, sex, love and death.

Cast:
Narrator ..... Lucy Robinson
Hugh Casthorpe ..... Luke Thallon
James Simpson ..... Hugh Skinner
Doctor Crowmarsh ..... Sandy Grierson
Professor Jones ..... Richard Harrington
Clauda Civet ..... Genevieve Gaunt
Edie Robinson ..... Keziah Joseph
Marjorie ..... Georgina Strawson
Stour ..... Ed Jones

Written by Thomas Mann
from a translation by John E Woods
Dramatised by Robin Brooks

Directed and Produced by Fiona McAlpine
Sound Design by Alisdair McGregor
An Allegra production for BBC Radio 4 Show less