Michael Hastings is to adapt a lost masterpiece by Irene Nemirovsky, author of the bestselling Suite Francaise, for BBC Radio 4.

The book is called A Life of Chekhov, and consists of twelve episodes from the life of the legendary Russian author and dramatist. Originally published in France in 1944, it was subsequently published in England by the Grey Walls Press in 1948, and then disappeared from view for over fifty years. A friend uncovered a copy in a second-hand bookshop and passed it to Michael, who immediately set about acquiring the rights to adapt the book for radio. The book was written when Irene Nemirovsky was on the run from the Vichy regime, and weaves her own feelings with the tone and nuances of Chekhovian prose with consummate skill.

The twelve episodes in the book will be reduced to a series of five fifteen-minute episodes, to be broadcast late in 2008 on Radio 4 as part of Woman's Hour.