The Queen's Gambit

A modern classic about a troubled chess prodigy and her battle to survive --- a coming of age story of feminism, chess and addiction NOW A MAJOR GOLDEN GLOBE-WINNING NETFLIX SERIES ' Superb '   Time Out 'Mesmerizing '   Newsweek ' Gripping ' Financial Times ' Sheer entertainment. It is a book I reread every few years - for the pure pleasure and skill of it ' Michael Ondaatje ' Don't pick this up if you want a night's sleep '   Scotsman When she is sent to an orphanage at the age of eight, Beth Harmon soon discovers two ways to escape her surroundings, albeit fleetingly: playing chess and taking the little green pills given to her and the other children to keep them subdued. Before long, it becomes apparent that hers is a prodigious talent, and as she progresses to the top of the US chess rankings she is able to forge a new life for herself. But she can never quite overcome her urge to self-destruct. For Beth, there's more at stake than merely winning and losing. ' I loved it. I just loved it, it really drew me in and I know nothing about chess... The writing about addiction is just fantastic. I underlined so many bits of it... I didn't want it to end ' Bryony Gordon on BBC Radio 4 'Few novelists have written about genius - and addiction - as acutely as Walter Tevis'   T elegraph Gripping reading . . . Nabokov's The Defense and Zweig's The Royal Game are the classics. Now joining them is The Queen's Gambit - FINANCIAL TIMES Mesmerizing - NEWSWEEK Don't pick this up if you want a night's sleep - SCOTSMAN What Walter Tevis did for pool in The Hustler, he does for chess in The Queen's Gambit - PLAYBOY Walter Tevis is famous for writing The Hustler and The Man Who Fell to Earth, but this is my favorite book of his. It is about a girl who, guided by her somewhat unreliable mother, becomes a child prodigy at chess. Even if you do not know how to play chess, it is a great thriller - Literary Hub