To TOO BRIEFLY summarize, a French Jewish Prisoner in Auschwitz, (a Master chess player...) at first plays chess with fellow prisoners and then, in time, is co-opted into a challenge where he is obliged to play chess games against the Totenkampfverbande SS who run the camp... He WINS, he gets to save lives... He LOSES, he dies...
The book TIMELINES between 1944, (The Camp) and 1962, (a later International chess tournament in Amsterdam in 1962...)
I am DEEPLY CONFLICTED by this novel. I have NO REAL PROBLEM with those, (Martin Amis, Thomas Keneally, John Boyne, Stephen King indeed,) who choose to write about The Holocaust without any real cultural or religious connection to that atrocity. HOWEVER... Donaghue's novel, while VERY FINELY WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED raises hackles...
I'll talk more about this if anyone is interested and especially if anyone has read the book.
xx SF
(Just as a 'FOR EXAMPLE', such a thing NEVER happened and COULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED!)
My CONFLICT BTW arises because I thought it was a VERY WELL WRITTEN NOVEL... I GOT what it tried to do... But I'm not convinced...
Lurker
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