ZUGZWANG

TITLE: ZUGZWANG
AUTHOR: RONAN BENNETT
Date: 30/08/2008
Grade: 4
Details: Audio: 9 Cd's/9 hours
Narrator: Gordon Griffin
Library

It is 1914 in St. Petersburg, and the place is filled with unrest and violence.
Dr. Otto Spathmann is busy with his psycho-analitical practice when he suddenly finds the police has an interest in him and his daughter. An interest connected to two recent murders of men he didn't know.
Next thing he knows he's up to his neck in politics, in which he was never interested, and intrigue. And somehow several of his clients appear to be connected too, if it's unclear how. There is Anna Petrova, a beautiful woman troubled by nightmares, with whom Spattman falls in love, and there is Rosenthal, a brilliant but very troubled chess player on the eve of playing a very important tournament.
As Spattman plays a chess match with his friend, his own life turns into an intricate game of chess, with his own life depending on the outcome.
Zugzwang, apparently, is a chess term which I didn't get to understand completely, but appears to mean a losing position from which no come back is possible.