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Title details for The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab - Available

The Last Checkmate

A Novel

by Gabriella Saab
Saskia Maarleveld
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available

A PopSugar Best Book of the Year!

Readers of Heather Morris's The Tattooist of Auschwitz and watchers of The Queen's Gambit won't want to miss this amazing debut set during World War II. A young Polish resistance worker, imprisoned in Auschwitz as a political prisoner, plays chess in exchange for her life, and in doing so fights to bring the man who destroyed her family to justice.

Maria Florkowska is many things: daughter, avid chess player, and, as a member of the Polish underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a young woman brave beyond her years. Captured by the Gestapo, she is imprisoned in Auschwitz, but while her family is sent to their deaths, she is spared. Realizing her ability to play chess, the sadistic camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch, decides to use her as a chess opponent to entertain the camp guards. However, once he tires of exploiting her skills, he has every intention of killing her.

Befriended by a Catholic priest, Maria attempts to overcome her grief, vows to avenge the murder of her family, and plays for her life. For four grueling years, her strategy is simple: Live. Fight. Survive. By cleverly provoking Fritzsch's volatile nature in front of his superiors, Maria intends to orchestrate his downfall. Only then will she have a chance to evade the fate awaiting her and see him punished for his wickedness.

As she carries out her plan and the war nears its end, she challenges her former nemesis to one final game, certain to end in life or death, in failure or justice. If Maria can bear to face Fritzsch—and her past—one last time.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 19, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780063141957
      • File size: 330167 KB
      • Duration: 11:27:50

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 9, 2021
      Saab’s capable debut features a revenge plot set amidst the horrors of the Holocaust. In April 1945, three months after Maria Florkowska escaped from Auschwitz, she returns to the camp armed with a gun in order to challenge Nazi officer Lagerführer Fritzsch, who’d tormented her there, to a chess match. Flashbacks provide the backstory of their relationship: At 14, Maria, a chess prodigy, joined the Polish resistance in Warsaw, delivering blank baptismal certificates to Jews so they could avoid being sent to the death camps. On one mission, she panicked when she was confronted by German officers, and, as a result, she and her family were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. There, she was separated from them, eventually learning they were executed. She was spared because Fritzsch had been sufficiently impressed by Maria’s chess playing to allow her to survive as his regular playing partner. But when Maria learns that Fritzsch may have personally executed her family, she plots her retribution. Knowing from the outset that Maria survived the camp reduces the tension in the flashback segments, though they serve to set up a powerful crescendo. Readers who love WWII fiction with strong female leads should check this out. Agent: Kaitlyn Johnson, Belcastro Agency.

    • Booklist

      October 1, 2021
      Set during WWII, Saab's debut novel tells the tale of 14-year-old Maria, who lives in Warsaw, where her parents are part of the Polish Resistance against the Nazi regime. Maria is an avid chess player and applies the tactics she's gained from the game to everyday life; soon she, too, joins the Resistance. After she is interrogated by Gestapo agents, Maria, her parents, and her younger siblings are arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Maria's family is executed upon arrival, but she is spared after the camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch, learns that she plays chess. Plagued with guilt over the murders of her family, Maria is forced to compete against Fritzsch and others to survive, always aware that her time may be limited. Faced with the unfathomable horrors of the death camp and possessed of a strong will and deep courage, Maria pledges to avenge her family's deaths at any cost. With chess strategies as a compelling lure and a variety of provocative characters, Saab offers a fresh and riveting take on fortitude in an oft-dramatized hell of inexplicable loss.

      COPYRIGHT(2021) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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