Escapes

Daniel Tunnard, 1976-

Book - 2020

"After the peak of the 1990s Scrabble boom, an estranged couple (both Scrabble world champions), meets deep in the Tigre Delta for one final game. The words they play spell out how they ended here, and why they are probably going to die. In this alternate history, Scrabble is suddenly everywhere. The once innocent board game went pro, and got rich and corrupt on TV money and cigarette sponsorships-becoming the third-most televised sport by 1996 and earning its major players fame and fortune. The league was tightly controlled by the Scrabble mafia, popularly known as the Scrafia, who muscled its way in so betting on major Scrabble matches, and the subsequent match-fixing, became the scourge of the game. This is the story of two of t...he world's best Scrabble players, Florence Satine and Buenaventura Escobar, and their defiance of the sinister Scrafia."--Provided by publisher.

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Subjects
Genres
Satirical literature
Alternative histories (Fiction)
Published
Los Angeles : The Unnamed Press [2020]
Language
English
Spanish
Main Author
Daniel Tunnard, 1976- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
200 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm
ISBN
9781951213114
Contents unavailable.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Florence Satine and Buenaventura Escobar live and die by the luck of the draw from the Scrabble tile bag in Tunnard's delightful English language debut. In this world, Scrabble is the highest-grossing tabletop game of the 1990s, Scrabble tournaments are multimillion-dollar events (and a sport contested at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics), and backroom high stakes games worldwide are controlled by the elderly Gilbert triplets of Argentina, who lead a crime syndicate called the "Scrafia." The three sisters have a choke hold on competitive Spanish Scrabble, which overtakes the originating English edition as the world standard. However, the Scrafia doesn't intimidate the five-time world champion Florence, whose dominant style could topple their hold on the game. During three years of intense competition, Florence and Buenaventura endure match-throwing, mid-match tantrums, betrayal, and a press exposé that turns the world of competitive Scrabble on its head. Tunnard's professional experience and outlandish premise combine wonderfully to create an entrancing alternate reality. Told in both English and Spanish (and using game tiles), this enjoyable romp will please lovers of camp. (Oct.)

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