Florence Satine and Buenaventura Escobar live and die by the luck of
the draw from the Scrabble tile bag in Tunnard's delightful debut.
--Publishers Weekly
In an alternate 90s where Scrabble (not poker) is a global sensation
broadcast live on ESPN, former world champs Florence Satine and
Buenaventura Escobar meet deep in Argentina's Tigre Delta for one final
game. The words they play spell out how they ended up here, and why they
are probably going to die.
By 1996, Scrabble is big business. The once innocent game has gone pro,
becoming the third-most televised "sport" in the world, and earning its
major players fame, fortune and corporate sponsorships. The league,
however, is tightly controlled by a Scrabble mafia (e.g., The Scrafia)
and is suffering from a scourge of corruption, match-fixing, and most
disturbingly, the mysterious disappearances of problematic players. When
Florence and Buenaventura defy the sinister Scrafia, they recall the
unlikely obsession that dominated their lives: a tumultuous
romance...with a game.
This is the story of a Scrabble reality that never was, but should have
been. A bilingual, lexicographical romp across the world, Escapes
raises the stakes with each new letter placed upon the rack.
