VINEGAR GIRL
Listen at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ffkj1
Anne Tyler's contemporary response to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew follows the story of college drop-out Kate Battista, who keeps house for her widowed father and fifteen year old sister, Bianca.
Kate also works at a preschool nursery where her forthright ways win her the affection of the children but are not appreciated by the school's principal who would prefer her to exercise a little tact, restraint and diplomacy when dealing with the parents.
When her obsessively dedicated scientist father makes uncharacteristic use of his mobile phone to summon her to his lab, she is not prepared for what he has in mind.
Anne Tyler's previous novels include Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (1983), The Accidental Tourist (1985) and Breathing Lessons (1988). All three were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction with Breathing Lessons winning the prize for 1989. She has also won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Ambassador Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2012 she was awarded The Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.
Read by Liza Ross Abridged by Isobel Creed Produced by Jill Waters A Waters Company production for BBC Radio 4.