About this audiobook
Fyodor Lavretsky returns to his family estate carrying the disappointment of an unhappy marriage. Away from the life he has left behind, he begins to imagine the possibility of renewal. His acquaintance with Liza Kalitina gives that hope a personal shape, but the past is less easily set aside than he would wish.
Ivan Turgenev follows people whose feelings are constrained by memory, moral conviction and obligations to others. Affection does not automatically provide permission to begin again. The quiet settings of the estate and the surrounding social world make the characters' hesitations especially visible, allowing small encounters and conversations to carry considerable emotional weight.
The novel considers loss, responsibility and the difference between a desired future and the life circumstances allow. Its restrained narrative invites attention to what people leave unsaid, and to the difficulty of recognising a genuine possibility of happiness without overlooking the claims that the past continues to make upon them.
