La Rivoluzione è alle porte: San Pietroburgo è una città vitale e travolgente, centro nevralgico di una nazione in bilico sull’orlo di un cambiamento epocale. Qui la cavalleria prova a ricacciare indietro lo spettro del comunismo; l’antisemitismo mostra il suo volto più scellerato; lo zar è l’ago di una bilancia impazzita e un grande torneo di scacchi sta per iniziare. In un giorno di marzo, Gul’ko, rispettabile direttore di giornale, viene assassinato. Cinque giorni dopo il dottor Otto Sp...

Un thriller ambientado en St. Petersburgo, donde se celebra un campeonato internacional de ajedrez y donde se están cometiendo una serie de misteriosos asesinatos.Zugzwang: [del alemán Zug («movimiento») y Zwang («exigencia, obligación»)]. En ajedrez se emplea para describir una posición en que uno de los jugadores queda reducido a un estado de total impotencia: está obligado a mover, pero cualquier movimiento solo empeora su situacióSan Pe...

St Petersburg, 1914. Dr Otto Spethmann, a famous psychoanalyst, is implicated in a murder. But he is preoccupied with Avrom Rozental, the brilliant chess master who is due to play the most important competition of his life but is on the verge of a breakdown. With the city rife with speculation and alarm, Spethmann broods over his own chessboard, its pieces frozen mid-battle, and contemplates the forces - political, historical, sexual - that are holding him in their grasp...

Based on the hit Netflix series, this novel delves into the lives of Top Boy's beloved characters. Written by creator and co-producer Ronan Bennett, it promises to be an exciting new chapter of this bona fide TV sensation.I’m gonna tell you the whole story. I’m going to tell you everything.Sometimes all it takes is a single message. Maybe it’s bad, like a rival top boy’s been switched off. Or maybe it’s good, like an oppor...

AN IRISH TIMES FICTION BOOK TO LOOK OUT FORI’m going to tell you everything. I’m gonna tell you the whole story.Sometimes all it takes is a single message. Maybe it’s bad, like a rival top boy’s been switched off. Or maybe it’s good, like an opportunity you never thought you’d get. But opportunities mean risks, and debts, and you never want to owe anyone anything.Jaq’s worked hard on the road since she was fourteen, bringi...

Zugzwang: A chess term used to describe a position in which a player is reduced to utter helplessness–he is obliged to move, but every move serves to make his position even worse.The year is 1914, and St. Petersburg is spellbound by the international chess championship, even as the city seethes with revolutionary plots. One blustery April day, a respected newspaper editor is murdered in front of a shocked crowd. Five days later, Dr. Otto Spethmann, the celebrated psychoana...