An orphan learns chess from the janitor in the basement and the book follows her up through the competitive ladder, with tranquillisers and then alcohol running alongside the whole way.
The games are written so you can follow the tension without being able to read the notation, which is a genuinely hard problem solved well.
What the book refuses is the usual arc where the addiction is the obstacle to the talent. Here they come from the same place and the ending does not pretend otherwise.
Read January 2021.
