Allissa Oldenberg

En Passant Allissa Oldenberg

If you enjoyed The Queen's Gambit, the chances are you'll enjoy this story of love and identity, shaped by the game of chess.
Set, for the greater part, in Manhattan and Nottingham, En Passant recounts two love stories, twenty years apart, connected by the life of Ian Stringfellow. The stories are narrated by Helen Painter, a fictional author who, inspired by a holiday in New York, her academic studies and her love of chess, reflects on some big issues, including social justice, sexual identity, suicide, and the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.
The narrative also takes the reader to London, Auschwitz, Paris and Israel, on a journey which will ultimately determine the romantic destinies both of Ian and Rebekah, in the first half of the novel, and of Adam and Rowan in the second half.
Ultimately, through the many different human connections in En Passant, the reader is prompted to reflect on whether it's irony or love which underpins our universe.