Our June Author: Jennifer duBois

This month we are reading A Partial History of Lost Causes, Jennifer duBois' debut novel which links the story of a young woman diagnosed with Huntington's disease and a Russian chess champion turned politician. You can learn more about this young author, a 5 under 35 honoree, at her website. You'll find links to several interviews there, but I found the best supplement to my reading of this book was a series of articles duBois wrote for Powell's which deal with matters related to chess, gender, disease and Russian politics. At Bookish Habits, duBois explains her choice of differing perspectives for the two interwoven stories that form the narrative, and comments on Pussy Riot and her desire to trade places with Hilary Clinton. At Critics and Writers she discusses the research she did for the book, including watching chess games on YouTube and reading Rights Readers fave, Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. At Numero Cinq, she talks about taking on Putin and the similarities between writing and chess.


For fun, check out DuBois' book recommendations here and here, a playlist to match the novel here, and she has fun casting a hypothetical movie version of the book here.

Finally, because the book's chessmaster turned dissident character is inspired by the very charismatic Garry Kasparov, here he is speaking to the Oslo Freedom Forum in 2010. Or, take a look at this 2007 Al Jazeera documentary (Pt 1, Pt 2) about Kasparov's turn to politics complete with his homage to Politkovskaya.

For June: A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer DuBois

For June, we have selected A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer DuBois,

In St. Petersburg, Russia, world chess champion Aleksandr Bezetov begins a quixotic quest: He launches a dissident presidential campaign against Vladimir Putin. He knows he will not win—and that he is risking his life in the process—but a deeper conviction propels him forward. 

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, thirty-year-old English lecturer Irina Ellison struggles for a sense of purpose. Irina is certain she has inherited Huntington’s disease—the same cruel illness that ended her father’s life. When Irina finds an old, photocopied letter her father wrote to the young Aleksandr Bezetov, she makes a fateful decision. Her father asked the chess prodigy a profound question—How does one proceed in a lost cause?—but never received an adequate reply. Leaving everything behind, Irina travels to Russia to find Bezetov and get an answer for her father, and for herself.