The Last Checkmate

A Novel

By: Gabriella Saab

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

A PopSugar Best Book of the Year!

Listeners of Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz and watchers of The Queen’s Gambit won’t want to miss this amazing debut set during World War II. A young Polish resistance worker, imprisoned in Auschwitz as a political prisoner, plays chess in exchange for her life, and in doing so fights to bring the man who destroyed her family to justice.

Maria Florkowska is many things: daughter, avid chess player, and, as a member of the Polish underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, a young woman brave beyond her years. Captured by the Gestapo, she is imprisoned in Auschwitz, but while her family is sent to their deaths, she is spared. Realizing her ability to play chess, the sadistic camp deputy, Karl Fritzsch, decides to use her as a chess opponent to entertain the camp guards. However, once he tires of exploiting her skills, he has every intention of killing her.

Befriended by a Catholic priest, Maria attempts to overcome her grief, vows to avenge the murder of her family, and plays for her life. For four grueling years, her strategy is simple: Live. Fight. Survive. By cleverly provoking Fritzsch’s volatile nature in front of his superiors, Maria intends to orchestrate his downfall. Only then will she have a chance to evade the fate awaiting her and see him punished for his wickedness.

As she carries out her plan and the war nears its end, she challenges her former nemesis to one final game, certain to end in life or death, in failure or justice. If Maria can bear to face Fritzsch — and her past — one last time.

©2021 Gabriella Saab (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Well written and well read

Very well written novel of a horrid time. I learned a lot. Very well read also. I listened whenever I could and had a hard time turning it off. Definitely recommend it.

Powerful

A very significant and a powerful piece of history told by a 14 year old girl and her experience. Although it is a novel the reality remains! Must listen to authors notes after you listened to the audiobook. Very well written and heart ranching.

OUTSTANDING

A very powerful and moving imagining of a time and place where man's inhumanity to man raged. In this day and age where history is being distorted and rewritten, it is more important than ever that these stories are read. There are so very few survivors of the war years, and, in English, so few 1st hand accounts, that a well imagined fictionalized account like this should be read and shared. I highly recommend this book. It makes me wonder what many of the Jewish, tattooed, "old people" I knew as a child endured. They never shared...

Outstanding

Fascinating story. Although fictional, some stories and scenes are based on true events. I hope a movie is made.

Captivating

I love this been. It stole my attention from the very start. I had a difficult time “putting it down.” A great book; great story; great narrator.

Excellent! Well Written, Engaging

This story was so engaging and well written. The author does an excellent job of transitioning between different time lines to weave the story together. The characters felt real and I found myself thinking of them even when I wasn’t listening to the book. Excellent! I would definitely recommend.

should be required reading for high school

great narration. a bit of jumping around years without being clear where in the storyline we are. highly recommend as a nearly non fiction account of the atrocities of the Nazi labor/death camps. well done!

Poignant and eye-opening

Although it was a work of fiction, it made you feel like you were there in so many ways. It only brushed at the surface of the horrors, but it was enough to make the atrocities more real.

Wish everyone would read.

This was a very informative and interesting book. I know it’s fiction, but I think she portrayed history as best she could. I would highly recommend reading this and knowing the danger of an autocrat.

Excellent & Spellbinding

Loved it! Great reminder of a past we never want to forget. Maria's only 14 and endures so much.
Most memorable moment is when her fellow resistance fighter returns to the prison camp disguised as a female German prison guard.
The voices are great don't miss it.