{"product_id":"the-luneburg-variation-paolo-maurensig","title":"The Luneburg Variation, Paolo Maurensig","description":"\u003cp\u003eA man is found shot in his garden, in a village not far from Vienna. Unable to be defined as either a suicide or a homicide, the death is called one of \"mysterious circumstances.\" The garden--unlike the prominent citizen's life--is highly unusual, a \"concentric maze of ten-foot-high hedges leading to a chessboard-shaped clearing paved with squares of white and black marble.\" Frisch, the murdered man, was obsessed with chess, and the novel's chilling first sentence--\"They say that chess was born in bloodshed\"--bears this out. In this first novel, Paolo Maurensig coolly executes the ultimate drama of manipulation--life as a game of chess. On this armature, he hangs a tale of vengeance set against a backdrop of historic villainy, Nazi against Jew. The two chess players are as black and white as can be--a persecuted Jew and a ruthless, persecuting German who first \"duel\" over a chessboard in an international tournament, and then in a concentration camp. The narrative is a meticulous reconstruction of the moments and background events that led to Frisch's death. Ingeniously referring everything back to the machinations and executions of movements in a chess game, life itself is at stake as the inescapable sins of the past catch up with the chess-obsessed characters.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Phoenix","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":60836254286158,"sku":"9780753806715","price":6.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0842\/6546\/8238\/files\/9780753806715.webp?v=1789555598","url":"https:\/\/littlelanebookshop.com\/products\/the-luneburg-variation-paolo-maurensig","provider":"Little Lane Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}