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Episode 6

Letters between Miriam in America and her father Albert in Germany shed new light on their relationship.

By Jonathan Lethem

A Twentieth Century American epic by prize-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem, applying his sharp, funny and perfectly crafted prose to an alternative history of America which puts a woman at its heart - a Jewish, Communist woman, a single mother, a second generation immigrant deeply involved in the civil rights movement.

In 1955 Rose Zimmer is kicked out of the American Communist party for her affair with a black policeman. Her ire and her radicalism, her incendiary disappointment in the Twentieth Century, prove inescapable for the generations that come after her - her idealistic hippy daughter Miriam, black stepson Cicero and her lost grandson Sergius. A fragmented and compelling story of modern America from the perspective of those who lost out.

Episode 6: Letters between Miriam in America and her father Albert in Germany shed new light on their relationship.

Read by Laurel Lefkow
Abridged by Elizabeth Reeder

Produced by Allegra McIlroy.

15 minutes

Last on

Mon 27 Jan 2014 22:45

Credits

Role Contributor
Reader Laurel Lefkow
Producer Allegra McIlroy
Abridger Elizabeth Reeder
Author Jonathan Lethem

Broadcast

  • Mon 27 Jan 2014 22:45

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