Category:
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Eastern Europe SatireWritten by Julian Barnes
Read by Simon Vance
Format: MP3
Bitrate: Variable
Unabridged
Julian Barnes trains his laser-bright prose on the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.
Stoyo Petkanov, the deposed Party leader, is placed on trial for crimes that range from corruption to political murder. Petkanov’s guilt - and the righteousness of his opponents - would seem to be self-evident. But, as brilliantly imagined by Barnes, the trial of this cunning and unrepentant dictator illuminates the shadowy frontier between the rusted myths of the Communist past and a capitalist future in which everything is up for grabs.
Audio Release Date:
December 17 2020
4 hrs and 15 mins
(Barnes took inspiration for this novella from the trial of Todor Zhivkov, and in fact publication of the Bulgarian translation preceded the English publication.)