Beth Harmon, an orphan by eight years old, is unremarkable. She is plain and she knows it. In the Kentucky orphanage, she hordes the tranquilizers handed to the children daily to quell the ache of dullness and routine.
A formidable math student, she is allowed to clean the blackboard …
Beth Harmon, an orphan by eight years old, is unremarkable. She is plain and she knows it. In the Kentucky orphanage, she hordes the tranquilizers handed to the children daily to quell the ache of dullness and routine.
A formidable math student, she is allowed to clean the blackboard erasers in the basement where she find the janitor playing chess daily. He is a sour old man and pays her no mind until she suggests a move he could have made. She learned the basics of the game by watching and he slowly teaches her the intricacies as she earns the right to learn them. Throughout the process her mind races and her dull, plain existence is replaced by the realization of prodigy.
By the age of sixteen she is competing, under the new freedom of adoption, for the US Open and is on her way to international stardom if she learns to prioritize her chess, her addictions, and the distractions of youth.
Hardcover, 243 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 1983 by Random House.
Hardcover, 243 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 1983 by Random House.
243 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 2003 by Vintage Contemporaries.
English language
Published April 2, 1989 by Laurel.
272 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 2016 by Orion Publishing Group, Limited.
mass market paperback
Published Oct. 1, 1984 by Dell.
Paperback
Published Aug. 1, 2009 by Penguin Books.
audio cd, 1 pages
Published Dec. 11, 2018 by Blackstone Audio.
Paperback, 320 pages
English language
Published March 3, 1996 by Texas Bookman.
243 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 2014 by RosettaBooks.
286 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 1984 by Pan in association with Heinemann.
260 pages
English language
Published Nov. 3, 1983 by Heinemann.
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