To a Distant Island

Introduction by Jay Parini / 203-page paperback / 5.25" x 8.88"" / ISBN 978-0-9664913-5-7 / Publication Date: November 2000 "One of our finest writers."—Annie Dillard "What a pleasure, and how much there is to learn from this short book!" —Denise Levertov "A deeply moving, exquisitely written book."—Washington Post Book World "Exceptionally serene prose…leveled with sharp observation and subtle wit…neither history nor fiction , but rather a kind of reimagining of the past."—Michael Dirda, Smithsonian Magazine "We have had many straight biographies of writers in recent years…that leave their subjects curiously diminished. Mr. McConkey's achievement…is to send the reader back to the Russian master with renewed wonder."—Harvey Shapiro, The New York Times In 1890 Anton Chekhov—thirty years old and already a famous writer—left his home and family in Moscow to travel 6,500 miles across Russia, over frozen land and sea, by train, ferry, and troika, to visit the island of Sakhalin, a penal col