Through the lens of chess, a celebrated Belgian author unearths fresh insights into his work and relationships in this luminous exploration of childhood, memory, and aging.

Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Europe into lockdown, Jean-Philippe Toussaint left Brussels for the seaside city of Ostend. Spending his days editing his novel The Emotions and coming to terms with new aches and pains, his mind wanders to memories of his youth—summers at the beach with his grandmother, whose sore legs he’s inherited now that he’s reached the age she was then; the black-and-white checkered floor of his first school from the 1960s, where his exhausting quest for perfection would manifest.

When a slate of canceled trips and events presents him with unexpected time, Toussaint begins a translation of Stefan Zweig’s Chess Story, or The Royal Game, the writer’s final novel, completed in exile shortly before his suicide in 1942. Working closely with this text that has long haunted him, Toussaint reflects on both their lives.

Revisiting games with his father—who seemed to love winning at chess rather than playing it—as well as remarkable players such as Artur Yusupov and Gilles Andruet, Toussaint poignantly illustrates his coming of age as a writer.