A Diagnosis

In her novel, The Betrayal, Helen Dunmore returns to the Soviet Union, and to the city of Leningrad whose history she so powerfully evoked in her best-seller The Siege. Now, a decade later, starvation and bitter cold have been replaced with fear and suspicion, as the people of Leningrad do their best to keep their heads down and their lives unremarkable in an era of accusations, arrests and the midnight knock at the door.

In today's episode: It is 1952, Leningrad and Andrei and Anna are just trying to live ordinary lives. But when the son of the feared secret police official, Vulkov, is admitted into his hospital, Andrei finds himself, against his better judgement, manoeuvred into seeing him. Now he is faced with a vulnerable patient and a worrying diagnosis.

The Reader is Sara Kestelman, the abridger is Sally Marmion and the producer is Di Speirs.