Theory of Shadows

(Paperback)

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On the morning of March 24, 1946, the world chess champion Alexander Alekhine was found dead in his hotel room in Estoril, Portugal. He was fully dressed and wearing an overcoat, slumped back in a chair, in front of a meal, a chessboard just out of reach. The doctor overseeing the autopsy certified that Alekhine choked on a piece of meat, maintaining that there was no evidence of suicide or foul play. Some, of course, have commented that the photos of the corpse look suspiciously theatrical. Others have wondered why Alekhine would have sat down to his dinner in a hot room while wearing a heavy overcoat. And what about the rumors concerning Alekhine's anti-Semetic activities during World War II Is it true that his homeland, Russia, considered him a traitor, as well as a possible threat to the new generation of supposedly superior Soviet chess masters With the atmosphere of a thriller and the insight of a poem, Paolo Maurensig's Theory of Shadows leads us through the life and death of Alekhine: not so much trying to figure out whodunit as using the story of one infuriating and unapologetic genius to tease out "that which the novel alone can discover." . For readers of Laurent Binet's HHhH

Reviews

"Theory of Shadows uses the game of chess as a vehicle to meditate on the Holocaust . . . In the brilliant darkness of his story, Maurensig investigates the cost of complicity with evil." --Elizabeth Fifer, World Literature Today

"In this slim yet complex novel, Maurensig returns to themes familiar from his debut, The Lneburg Variation (1997): fascism and chess. In 1946, world chess champion Alexander Alekhine was found dead in his hotel room in Portugal, the official cause listed as choking on his dinner. The scene screamed coverup, and Alekhine's life provided a bevy of murder motivations." --Bethany Latham, Booklist

Author Bio

Paolo Maurensig was born in 1943 in Gorizia, Italy. His first novel, The Lneburg Variation, was a bestseller in Italy and an international sensation. He lives in Udine. Anne Milano Appel is an award-winning translator whose translations from the Italian include Andrea Canobbio's Three Light-Years, Goliarda Sapienza's The Art of Joy, Claudio Magris's Blindly, and Giovanni Arpino's Scent of a Woman. Most recently her work was awarded the 2015 Italian Prose in Translation Award.