Shirley Curran
Zugzwang is a blockade position in chess in which any move is disadvantageous to the blockaded player. Of course, he has to move. It is an intriguing idea for a thriller and Ronan Bennett‘s Zugzwang lives up to its name.
In St Petersburg, in 1914, we accompany a psychoanalyst, Dr Otto Spethmann, through a chess game with the musician he considered to be his old friend. At the same time, we live, with him, through an increasingly complex involvement with Bolshevik intrigue and an attempt to assassinate the Tsar.
Among his significant patients are a brilliant chess master, a leading Bolshevik, and the daughter of the head of a secret police organisation. His own daughter has become involved with a terrorist who is brutally murdered.
The tension builds up and, as the pace quickens, we wonder who to trust – if anybody. This engrossing thriller is as complex as the game of chess that it recounts.
GenevaLunch, 21 July 2008.
Filed under: Society
Tags: Arts and Entertainment, Politics, Society
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