by Stefan Zweig
ISBN: 978-1-78227-826-9
First published: 1941
Translated from the German by Alexander Starritt
105 pages
Publisher: pushkinpress.com
Front cover image: Supawat Bursuk / EyeEm / Martin Barraud
5/5 Stars
A page turning novella full of intrigue and drama. Written during the Second World War in the age of the great ocean liners.
This book, by the writer who was the inspiration behind The Budapest Hotel, was described by the Economist as ‘perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game‘.
I had to look up what the Sicilian was (a combative opening in chess), and the final game in the book is based, somewhat, on an actual chess game, Alekhine vs. Bogoljubow, Pistyan 1922.
The references to the war and the Gestapo give the book an emotional depth, and adds a sense of realism to the story. The protagonist has escaped the Gestapo, but can he escape the strictures of his own mind?
The Eclectic Book Review 