Title: THE QUEEN OF
KATWE
Author: Tim Crothers
Publisher: Scribner
October 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4516-5781-4
Genre: Non-fiction \ biography
224 pages. $26.00. 5 stars
If one is blissfully unaware of the many
opportunities, advantages, luxuries and conveniences that one has been blessed
with simply by living in these United States of America Kampala , Uganda
Phiona Mutesi sleeps in a decrepit shack with
her mother and three siblings and struggles to find a single meal each day.
Phiona has been out of school most of her life because her mother cannot afford
it, so she is only now learning to read and write. Phiona Mutesi is also
one of the best chess players in the world.
Phiona’s dream is to one day become a
Grandmaster, the most elite title in chess. But to reach that goal, she
must grapple with everyday life in one of the world’s most unstable countries,
a place where girls are taught to be mothers, not dreamers, and the threats of
AIDS, kidnapping, and starvation loom over the people of Katwe.
Taking the nuances of chess as an outline, Tim
Crothers chronicles the life of Phiona Mutesi from a 9-year old girl who could
only see to the next sunrise to a 15-year old tournament champion in the Chess
Olympiad, the world’s most prestigious team chess event. You’ll learn
lessons from Phiona herself as she shares how chess transformed not only her
daily existence, but her entire philosophy of who she is, who she wants to be,
and how she has the ability within her to get there.
THE QUEEN OF KATWE is not for the
squeamish, or the faint of heart. A word to the wise is sufficient.
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