““[An] astonishingly
beautiful and brainy debut . . . [a] stunning novel.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “In
Jennifer duBois’ gorgeous novel, A Partial History of Lost Causes, the personal,
theoretical, and political are braided together into a seamless whole. . . .
Moving yet startlingly funny—full of bravado, insight, and clarity. A Partial
History of Lost Causes is a thrilling debut by a young writer who evidently
shares the uncanny brilliance of her protagonists.”—Elle
In Jennifer duBois’s
mesmerizing and exquisitely rendered debut novel, a long-lost letter links two
disparate characters, each searching for meaning against seemingly
insurmountable odds. In St. Petersburg,
Russia, world
chess champion Aleksandr Bezetov begins a quixotic quest. With his renowned
Cold War–era tournaments behind him, Aleksandr has turned to politics,
launching 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. And in the same way that he cannot abandon his
aims, he cannot erase the memory of a mysterious woman he loved in his youth. In
Cambridge, Massachusetts, thirty-year-old English
lecturer Irina Ellison is on an improbable quest of her own. Certain she has
inherited Huntington’s disease—the same cruel illness that ended her father’s
life—she struggles with a sense of purpose. When Irina finds an old,
photocopied letter her father had written to the young Aleksandr Bezetov, she
makes a fateful decision. Her father had asked the Soviet chess prodigy a
profound question—How does one proceed against 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. Spanning two
continents and the dramatic sweep of history, A Partial History of Lost Causes
reveals the stubbornness and splendor of the human will even in the most trying
times. With uncommon perception and wit, Jennifer duBois explores the power of
memory, the depths of human courage, and the endurance of love.”
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