Play Book Tag discussion

I had no idea what this book was about, I liked Cartwheel by duBois, so I added this to my list.

It starts out with a lot of chess, and I thought nope, I'm never going to make it through. It then continued on a premise I thought was a bit weak .. a question posed to the chess champ by a terminally ill character ... something to the effect of - in the face of defeat how do you keep going?

I kept on, and I'm glad I did because I was enthralled and it was hard to put down. There was a lot to the book. A lot of seemingly lost causes. Unrequited love, politics, mortality, even chess itself. A lot of the book takes place in Russia which made it even more interesting. Russia is a character in its own right (a lost cause itself?)

This is a debut novel and a impressive one. I did the audio, which had two narrators for alternating points of view, which is always appreciated by me.

Definitely recommended.

Thank you for this review. I have added it my wish list. I did see this title when I was working on the California Book Award, but somehow it didn't strike a chord the way your review does.