Book Log 2015 #34: The Death Head's Chess Club by John Donoghue

An Israeli chess grand master is in Amsterdam for a tournament that may lead to him becoming world champion. But he is approached by a retired bishop - and former Nazi officer at Auschwitz, where the chess player was imprisoned - who is seeking reconciliation for the past. The chess player, who is stridently anti-German (to the point of almost forfeiting an opening match against a German player), resists his advances, but as they talk (and include the German player in their meetings), it becomes clear that everyone has something they want to atone for, and the best way to do it may be bringing each other into their stories.

This plot line (set in the 1960s) is interspersed with a story set at Auschwitz during WW2, where the bishop - assigned to the camp as an administrator due to an injury - starts a chess club as a way to improve camp morale. And it's a success - until it's discovered that there's a prisoner who may be a better chess player than any Nazi at the camp. And perhaps better than any Nazi, period. This puts the future bishop under pressure from superiors and from those who are using the club and tournaments for their own gain.

It took me a while to warm up to this book, but once I did I really got pulled in. The Auschwitz story line is compelling even though you know that the grand master and the future bishop survive, and the "present" story leads to questions about forgiveness, both within the framework of the Holocaust and within the personal relationship between these three men who, for the most part barely know each other.

The one thing I wasn't crazy about was the title. Otherwise, a very worthy read.