Posted by meredith kempthorne on Tuesday, October 27, 2009,
Zugzwang, by Ronan Bennett.
Zugzwang, n.: an obscure move in an
even more obscure game commonly thought to have originated in Persia,
whereby ritual war is conducted between two parties, sometimes
resulting in the loss of bodily fluids, mainly sweat and tears instead
of the more usual blood.
This is a novel that has all the
elements one would wish for in an intelligent thriller: chess, murder,
psychology and revolutionary politics, all set against the backdrop of
St. Petersburg, in the year... Continue reading ...