Longing [Paperback]

All things pass  is this your philosophy? Is there no room for love in your philosophy of life?

Renowned and best-selling novelist William Boyd, CBE, adapts two Chekhov short stories,A Visit to FriendsandMy Life, to weave a comic tale about nineteenth-century Russian provincial life, both familiar and unfamiliar.

When Kolia is invited to visit his oldest friends on their Estate in the country he anticipates a pleasant break from Moscow life. But as the comedy of provincial life plays out around him, he finds himself adrift in a miasma of false expectations, missed opportunities, and unspoken passions.

William Boydis the author of eleven novels, includingWaiting for Sunrise. He has won the Whitbread Award; the Somerset Maugham Award; the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize; the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; the Prix Jean Monnet and the Costa Novel of the Year award. An adaptation of his novelRestlesshas been produced for the BBC.Longingis his first play.

Fascinating . . . there is real ingenuity here, and a manifest love and understanding of the Russian writer ... Boyd ingeniously combines these two narrative strands . . . a truly Chekhovian atmosphere of rueful longing and the cruel inequality of love . . .this partnership between William Boyd and Anton Chekhov is undoubtedly blessed with both wit and moments of deeper feeling. Charles Spencer,Telegraph

The play itself is a reverent tribute to Chekhov. There is no mistaking the depth of Boyd's immersion in his work Henry Hitchings,Evening Standard