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Book at Bedtime: The Dream Life of Sukhanov

Book at Bedtime: The Dream Life of Sukhanov: Episode 10

The Dream Life of Sukhanov

Episode 10

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, The Dream Life of Sukhanov, Episode 10

Nina's enduring love for Sukhanov is confirmed and he feels inspired to paint again.

Sukhanov learns from Belkin the truth of Nina's enduring love for him and through this inspiration feels his talent for painting will emerge again.

Sukhanov encounters Dalevich at his mother's apartment. He shows him some drawings of Sukhanov's given to Dalevich when he was a child. They remind him of his talent as an artist, long buried.

Sukhanov discovers that the paintings he thought had been kept in a cupboard in his mother's apartment had been destroyed by her long ago. She tells him that she was afraid that his talent would lead to no good.

Set in the dawning days of Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika, The Dream Life of Sukhanov is the story of one man's battle with his true nature amidst the Soviet state's struggle with its own identity. Olga Grushin opens a window on to the soul of an artist who cannot escape his own vision amidst a transient and unsettling world.

Olga Grushin was born in Moscow in 1971 and spent her childhood in Moscow and Prague. In 1989 she became the first Soviet citizen to enrol for a full-time degree in the United States while retaining Soviet citizenship. In 2006 she was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for New Writers and named one of Grant's Best Young American Novelists in 2007. She has published two novels: The Dream Life of Sukhanov (2006) and The Concert Ticket (published in the US as The Line) in April 2010. Olga lives in Washington D.C.

"A stunning fictional debut": The Independent

"Haunting": The Observer

"Heartbreaking": Vogue

"Wonderful": Daily Telegraph

"It breathes new life into American literary fiction"
The Washington Post


Abridged by Jeremy Osborne


Directed by Marilyn Imrie
A Sweet Talk Production for BBC Radio 4.

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

By Olga Grushin. Story of betrayal, set during the waning days of the Soviet Union

By Olga Grushin. Story of betrayal and its repurcussions, set during the waning days of the Soviet Union

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