La lettrice di Čechov

Nina is a Russian-speaking Ukrainian woman who arrives in Italy to take care of an old lady. She leaves back her ill husband and her beloved daughter Katja, to whom she would like to offer a solid future, a degree in medicine and a marriage. Nina’s loneliness unfolds through her job and the awakening of a passion for the humanities and particularly for Chekhov. This brings her to the local Institute for Slavic Studies where she meets Giulio De Felice, the Professor of Russian Language and Literature, who offers her a temporary job as a teacher. Their relationship remains for the most part unfulfilled, and despite consisting of a series of sadly missed opportunities it keeps her in Italy, thus compromising her relationship with her daughter. In the meantime a new teacher arrives, providing De Felice with an opportunity to let Nina travel back to her country. Years of emptiness and silence follow, until De Felice invites her to a symposium on Chekhov. Chekhov’s lecturer is a learned and masterfully written novel, which describes how the love for a writer and his literature can change one person’s life and destiny. Nina’s moving deeds and thoughts represent the destiny of all women who are forced to leave their homes in order to survive and need to rebuild their lives, and above all to foresee a different future for themselves.