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Book of the Week

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: Elena Gorokhova - A Mountain of Crumbs

Book of the Week: Elena Gorokhova - A Mountain of Crumbs: Episode 1

Factual: Life Stories

A Mountain of Crumbs

Episode 1

Elena Gorokhova - A Mountain of Crumbs

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, Elena Gorokhova - A Mountain of Crumbs, Episode 1

Elena's mother has become a mirror image of her motherland.

4 Extra Debut. Elena's mother has become a mirror image of her motherland - overbearing, protective and difficult to leave. Read by Sian Thomas.

Elena Gorokhova wishes her mother had come from Leningrad, the world of Pushkin and the tsars, lace ironwork and pearly domes.  Its sophistication might have left a permanent mark of refinement on her soul.  

But she didn't.  

She came from the provincial town of Ivanovo in central Russia, where chickens lived in the kitchen and a pig squatted under the stairs.  

She came from where they lick plates.

Read by Sian Thomas 
A Jane Marshall Production for BBC Radio 4.

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Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Sian Thomas reads from Elena Gorokhova's memoir of growing up behind the Iron Curtain

Sian Thomas reads from Elena Gorokhova's memoir of growing up behind the Iron Curtain in the 1960s

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Elena Gorokhova - A Mountain of Crumbs

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