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Editorial Reviews
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A man is found shot in his garden, in a village not far from Vienna. Unable to be defined as either a suicide or a homicide, the death is called one of "mysterious circumstances." The garden--unlike the prominent citizen's life--is highly unusual, a "concentric maze of ten-foot-high hedges leading to a chessboard-shaped clearing paved with squares of white and black marble." Frisch, the murdered man, was obsessed with chess, and the novel's chilling first sentence--"They say that chess was born in bloodshed"--bears this out.
A man is found shot in his garden, in a village not far from Vienna. Unable to be defined as either a suicide or a homicide, the death is called one of "mysterious circumstances." The garden--unlike the prominent citizen's life--is highly unusual, a "concentric maze of ten-foot-high hedges leading to a chessboard-shaped clearing paved with squares of white and black marble." Frisch, the murdered man, was obsessed with chess, and the novel's chilling first sentence--"They say that chess was born in bloodshed"--bears this out.
In this first novel, Paolo Maurensig coolly executes the ultimate drama of manipulation--life as a game of chess. On this armature, he hangs a tale of vengeance set against a backdrop of historic villainy, Nazi against Jew. The two chess players are as black and white as can be--a persecuted Jew and a ruthless, persecuting German who first "duel" over a chessboard in an international tournament, and then in a concentration camp. The narrative is a meticulous reconstruction of the moments and background events that led to Frisch's death. Ingeniously referring everything back to the machinations and executions of movements in a chess game, life itself is at stake as the inescapable sins of the past catch up with the chess-obsessed characters.
From Library Journal
No one has rendered more vivid the classic metaphor of war as a game of chess than Maurensig in this suspenseful first novel, published in Italy in 1993 and appearing here in a highly readable translation. The tale of former Jewish concentration camp inmate Tabori and Nazi nemesis Frisch is brought to sinister life in the tradition of mystery masters Paul Auster and Ruth Rendell, e.g., events occur in random order, as pieces of a puzzle for the reader to solve. The story portrays periods in the lives of the two professional competitors, who eventually meet in a brutal psychological endgame. The climax reveals the stakes of their tortuous tournament as the very privilege of remaining alive. Chess fans will enjoy this thriller, and it may prod checkers aficionados into taking the next step.?Margaret A. Smith, Grace A. Dow Memorial Lib., Midland, Mich.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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