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The Sunday Magazine

Elegy for a tree; Putin's Russia; The Visit; Utopia on the prairie; John Boyne

Elegy for a tree - Michael's essay: We may not appreciate the beauty of trees, until they are gone. What would you do if you were Putin? Western leaders call him expansionist, aggressive, reckless, bombastic. But Russian President Vladimir Putin is wildly popular at home. The visit: Even when your parents are elderly, sometimes there is a turn of events that takes your breath away. An essay by Maureen Heffer. Utopia on the prairie: Craig Desson takes us to Palmer, Saskatchewan, a small farming community which is being brought back to life. A history of loneliness: John Boyne's new novel is a lacerating account of the trauma inflicted on Ireland by priests who sexually abused children and by the Catholic Church's cover-up of those crimes.
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Sunday Edition1:21:35Death of a tree; Putin's Russia; The Visit; Utopia on the prairie; John Boyne

Elegy for a tree - Michael's essay: (00:00:26) Trees form living canopies over our cities, and we may not notice or appreciate their beauty until they are gone.

Putin's Russia: (00:04:41) Western leaders call him expansionist, aggressive, reckless, bombastic, but Russian President Vladimir Putin is wildly popular at home. Peter Pomerantsev is the author of Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia.

The visit: (00:35:02) By the time your parents are elderly, you think you know who you're dealing with and what to expect, even if some of it is tough going. And then, as Maureen Heffer discovered, sometimes there is a turn of events that takes your breath away.

Utopia on the prairie: (00:42:11) In our on-going series, Living Arrangements, Craig Desson takes us to Palmer, Saskatchewan, a small farming community which is being brought back to life mostly by a group of young people from Ontario. They are all university-educated, but want no part of big-city striving. Instead, they are building new lives on the prairie.

John Boyne: (01:01:00) The Irish writer John Boyne is best-known for his Holocaust novel, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.  His latest novel, A History of Loneliness, is his first set in his home country. It's a lacerating account of the trauma inflicted on Ireland by priests who sexually abused children, and by the Catholic Church's cover-up of those crimes.

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