Paperback / ISBN-13: 9781474622578

Price: £9.99

Select a format:

ebook

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

NOW A MAJOR GOLDEN GLOBE-WINNING NETFLIX SERIES

SuperbTime Out
MesmerizingNewsweek
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 sleepScotsman

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’ Telegraph