Original version

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Book at Bedtime

Audiobooks

Podcasts

Drama

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and world literature

Readings from modern classics, new works by leading writers and literature from around the world

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 LW

Niamh Cusack

Mary Costello

Kirsteen Cameron

Book at Bedtime: Mary Costello - Academy Street: Episode 1

Academy Street

Episode 1

Mary Costello - Academy Street

BBC Radio 4 - Book at Bedtime, Mary Costello - Academy Street, Episode 1

Mary Costello's lyrical debut, shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, read by Niamh Cusack

4 Extra Debut. Irish farmer's daughter Tess Lohan, aged seven, is coming to terms with her mother's death. Read by Niamh Cusack.

A finely wrought and lyrical novel that recounts the life-span of a quiet and shy woman, Tess Lohan; from her childhood in 1940s rural Ireland, her emigration to New York in the early 1960s, becoming a single mother and raising her son in the 1970s and 1980s, right through to the present day.

Short-listed on publication for the Irish Book Awards, this beautifully evoked novel opens with Tess aged seven, trying to understand and come to terms with her mother's death.

Mary Costello grew up in County Galway.  Her collection of short stories, The China Factory, was nominated for the Guardian First Book Award.  Academy Street is her debut novel, about which J M Coetzee wrote: "With extraordinary devotion, Costello brings to life a woman who would otherwise have faded into oblivion."
 
Read by Niamh Cusack.
 
Written by Mary Costello.
 
Abridged by Kirsteen Cameron.
 
Produced by Kirsteen Cameron.

Book at Bedtime: Mary Costello - Academy Street

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.

Mary Costello's powerful novel recounts the life of Irish farmer's daughter Tess Lohan.

Mary Costello's powerful, lyrical novel, shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards, recounts the life of Irish farmer's daughter Tess Lohan. Read by Niamh Cusack. Abridged by Kirsteen Cameron.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Book at Bedtime

Mary Costello - Academy Street

Episode 1

Contributors

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra