"In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches...

At a time when the Russian theatre was dominated by melodramas and farces, Chekhov created a new sort of drama that laid bare the lives, loves and yearnings of ordinary people. This collection of plays shows his subtle blend of comedy, tragedy and psychological insight.

Anton Chekhov's life was short, intense, and dominated by battles, both with his dependents and with the tuberculosis that killed him at age forty-four. The traditional image of Chekhov is that of the restrained artist torn between medicine and literature, but Donald Rayfield's biography reveals the life long hidden behind the noble facade. Here is a man capable of both great generosity toward needy peasants and harsh callousness toward lovers and...

To keep herself occupied after recently losing her sight, Zinaida begins a diary in the summer of 1888. When a family rents a guesthouse on her family's estate, Zinaida meets and befriends Anton, the middle son, who is a doctor and a writer. As the summer progresses, Zinaida's diary becomes an intimate, intropective narrative of her singular relationship with Anton. More than a century later, Katya Kendall discovers Zinaida's diary, and in a last...

Madame Ranevskaya returns to her decaying estate in pre-Revolutionary Russia after an exile in Paris. The estate and its beloved cherry orchard are threatened by Ranevskaya's financial problems, and no one seems able to do anything about it.

"Set in the picturesque and beautiful Cappadocia region in central Turkey, the film follows retired actor Aydin (Haluk Bilginer), who has inherited a small hotel. He is ensconced with his recently divorced sister (Demet Akbag), his much younger (and growingly discontented) wife (Melisa Sözen), and a host of guests. A seemingly trivial incident sets in motion a clash of personalities that puts the group at odds, and makes them reflect on the path...