In the spring of 1890, Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov embarks on an investigative voyage to the Sakhalin Island penal colony, a gruelling six-month trip that could be fatal to someone suffering from tuberculosis. Everyone in Moscow knows he is escaping not only his current creative crisis but also the first woman the famously unattainable Chekhov has ever fallen in love with. In this witty, colourfully peopled novel, celebrated writer Caroline Adderson explores the complicated relationship between the iconic Chekhov and the beautiful, vivacious Lika Mizanova-and the colluding role his sister Masha played in it. An aspiring painter and for years her brother's amanuensis, Masha provided Chekhov with numerous lovers from her circle of friends, always with the unspoken understanding that marriage to any of them was out of the question. But the appearance of Lika Mizanova sets off a Chekhovian convolution of unrequited love, heartbreak, jealousy and scandal. In the end, the young woman who sacrifices herself for love ends up immortalized in art: Lika was the muse for the character of Nina in Chekhov's breakthrough play, The Seagull. Caroline Adderson's Seagull is a highly entertaining novel that offers a sly commentary on the role of women as prey for male inspiration, as well as on the limits of sisterhood, both familial and friendly.
