"Raven Road" by Cassandra Pybus. [review - radio script]

Abstract

"Raven Road" is about Lillian Alling, a Polish or Russian immigrant to North America during the 1920s. She appeared in the remote, rugged terrain of British Columbia in September 1927, and although her English was bad, she was understood to say that she was walking to Siberia. Pybus first came across Lillian’s story when browsing in a bookshop on an earlier visit to Canada and subsequently sought out other accounts of Lillian’s trek. "Raven Road" is the record ofher slow, frustrating and ultimately inconclusive search for information about Lillian’s fate, and the real reason for her foolhardy, super-human undertaking – walking through unforgiving country which had defeated countless others.