Bolshoye spasibo Shaena Lambert, Zsuzsi Gartner, Patrick Crean, and Jackie Kaiser, who all endured early versions of this novel; Tanya Tyuleneva for checking my translations and putting up with my Russian; Joan and Graham Sweeney for keeping us all warm and dry; Bruce and Patrick and the Addersons for the love. And Larry Cohen for “the tea.”
All Chekhov quotes are reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd. Quotes on page 15 and pages 147–150 are from Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin, translated by Rosemary Edmonds, ©Rosemary Edmonds, 1978. Quotes on pages 23, 85, 144, 145, 241, and 280 are from Lady with Lapdog and Other Stories, translated by David Magarshak, ©David Magarshak, 1964. Quotes on pages 29, 49, 174, 237, and 310 are from The Fiancée and Other Stories, translated by Ronald Wilks, ©Ronald Wilks, 1986. Quotes on pages 62, 65, 104, 146, and 301 are from The Duel and Other Stories, translated by Ronald Wilks, ©Ronald Wilks, 1984. Quotes on pages 122, 123, 144, 156, 201, 202, 237, and 238 are from The Kiss and Other Stories, translated by Ronald Wilks, ©Ronald Wilks, 1982. Quotes on pages 47, 105, and 304 are from The Party and Other Stories, translated by Ronald Wilks, ©Ronald Wilks, 1985. Quotes from The Cherry Orchard are from Plays, translated by Elisaveta Fen, ©Elisaveta Fen, 1954.
Quotes from Chekhov’s letters are taken from The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov, edited by Lillian Hellman, translated by Sidonie K. Lederer, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1955. Quotes from Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons are from the 1986 Bantam Classics edition translated by Barbara Makanowitzky. Jane’s Russian text is the 1962 edition of Russian: A Beginners’ Course by Ronald Hingley and T. J. Binyon. Helen Caldicott’s quotes come from the 1982 film If You Love This Planet, directed by Terre Nash.
The author gratefully acknowledges the generous and unexpected support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council.
Efforts were made during the writing of this book to preserve our diminishing Canadian lexicon. Please, when you sit down to read, sit on a chesterfield.