139 pages. Octavo (8 1/2" x 5 1/2") bound in original publisher's black boards with silver lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. First edition. At the opening of this book a cadaver is discovered, the body of an impeccable businessman from Munich, in an elaborate garden where topiary shrubs delineate a hidden chessboard behind the hedges. The death seems to be a suicide, with no plausible motivation, but then, as the plot of this thriller unfolds, we begin to see that its apparently random moves are variations on an opening gambit, and it can end only in a checkmate that annihilates the possibility of a rematch. Gary Kasparov has defined chess as "the most violent sport in existence", and that is true in this extraordinary novel, too. For the mortal duel around which it is constructed is between two chess players who are opposed human types - a clever, persecuted Jew and a ruthless, persecuting German - and when they face each other over a chessboard, at first in big international tournaments and then in a Nazi death camp, the stakes are nothing less than life itself. Condition: Fine in like jacket.

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Details

Bookseller: The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: BOOKS005569
Title: The Luneburg Variation
Author: Paolo Maurensig (1943- )
Format/Binding: Hardcover
Book Condition: Used - Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: First
ISBN 10: 0374194351
ISBN 13: 9780374194352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 1997
Keywords: MYSTERY, Chess
Bookseller catalogs: Literature;
Size: Octavo

Terms of Sale

The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA

All items are guaranteed as described. If an item is not as described, it is returnable within seven days of receipt, unless other arrangements are made. Full refunds given only when items are received in the same condition in which they were sent. We require new customers to send payment with their order. Customers known to us will be invoiced with payment due in thirty days, unless prior arrangements are made. Institutions will be billed to meet their requirements. All items subject to prior sale. We accept Visa, Mastercard, and American Express Please be advised that we can only ship to your billing address. We accept checks, but may require that the check clears before we ship an order. Prices of books do not include shipping. We use UPS domestically and internationally. Other shipping arrangements can be made. Shipping is always charged at cost. Texas residents must add 8.25% sales tax.

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The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA

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Fort Worth, Texas

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About The Book Collector ABAA, ILAB, TBA

The Book Collector specializes in the finest collections of Chess, Anthropology, Americana and American Literature. Visit our website at www.bookcollectorshop.com

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Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Octavo: Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...