Aspiring painter Masha C. is blindly devoted to Antosha, her famous writer-brother. Through the years Antosha takes up with numerous women from Masha's circle of friends, yet none of these relationships threaten the siblings' close ties until the winter he falls into a depression. Then Masha invites into their Moscow home a young woman who teaches with her—the beautiful, vivacious and deeply vulnerable Lika Mizanova — with the express hope she might help Antosha recover.

Lika's appearance sets off a convolution of unrequited love, jealousy and scandal that lasts for seven years. While Antosha and Lika push and pull, Masha falls in love herself—with a man and with a mongoose—only to have her dreams crushed twice. From her own heartbreak Masha comes to recognize the harm that she has done to her friends by encouraging their involvement with Antosha, but it is too late for Lika, who will both sacrifice herself for love and be immortalized as the model for Nina in Chekhov's The Seagull. (From Patrick Crean Editions)

Caroline Adderson is a novelist and children's book writer from Edmonton. Her books include The Sky is Falling, Ellen in Pieces, Norman, Speak! and the 1993 Governor General's Literary Award finalist Bad Imaginings. She received the Marian Engel Award for mid-career achievement in 2006, and is a three-time winner of the CBC Literary Prizes.