Book of the Week - A Mountain of Crumbs - Episode 1

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.