Adult

Nella, the middle daughter of five, aspires to a genteel life “in town,” far from the rigors of farm life. But Nella’s dreams shift when she meets Renato Lanzara, the son of a prominent family. Renato is a worldly, handsome, devil-may-care poet who has a way with words that makes him irresistible. But Nella is not alone in her pursuit: every girl in town seems to want Renato.

During the long, hot summer of 1888, an extraordinary friendship blossoms between Anton Chekhov and Zinaida Lintvaryova, a young doctor. Recently blinded by illness, Zinaida has retreated to her family’s estate in the lush countryside of Eastern Ukraine, where she is keeping a diary to record her memories of her earlier life. But when the Chekhov family arrives to spend the summer at a dacha on the estate, and she meets the middle son Anton Pavlovich, her quiet existence is transformed by the connection they share. What begins as a journal kept simply to pass the time becomes an intimate, introspective narrative of Zinaida’s singular relationship with this doctor and writer of growing fame.

Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough unfolds the dramatic story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence --- when the entire American cause was riding on their success.