Fred Waitzkin

Searching for Bobby Fischer is the story of Fred Waitzkin and his son Josh, from the moment six-year-old Josh first sits down at a chessboard until he competes for the national championship. Drawn into the insular, international network of chess, they must also navigate the difficult waters of their own relationship. All the while, Waitzkin wonders about and searches for the elusive Bobby Fischer, whose myth still dominates the chess world and profoundly affects Waitzkin's dreams for his son.

Jim can sell anything to anyone. Born into abject poverty, he uses street smarts, irresistible charms, and increasingly sophisticated schemes to pull himself up from door-to-door salesman to international mogul, the father of the pyramid scheme.

In a moving family memoir, the author of Searching for Bobby Fischer recalls his father's fierce dedication to fishing while his marriage crumbled around him. Reprint.

An inside look at the genius of chess player Garry Kasparov discusses his match against his sworn enemy, Anatoly Karpov, his tireless efforts to bring down Gorbachev, and his chess skills.

Two Bronx boys take radically different paths in a novel about the limits of genius and the loss of home, by a “terrifically gifted” author (Anita Shreve, New York Times-bestselling author of The Stars Are Fire). Ralph Silverman was a childhood buddy, a foreign film buff, a victim of bullies, a boy genius. He held long conversations with his pet parakeet and spent countless hours on a computer, creating mesmerizing music and solving problems in philosophy. He was a friend of great scholars and the son of a wealthy outer-borough businessman with shady associates and a second family. And, as he begins to take over the story from the narrator, he has found himself in South Florida, physically abused and then expelled into an unfamiliar world—with a broken pair of glasses, no money, and no shoes—by the distant cousin his sister left him with before disappearing forever. From the celebrated author of Searching for Bobby Fischer, Anything is Good is a hypnotically compelling tale of a man haunted by the fate of his childhood buddy, and of that friend’s pleasures and misfortunes as he navigates an unhoused life—a life more complex and dramatic than a bypasser might ever imagine. Praise for Fred Waitzkin’s previous books “Very few writers can deliver a story with this much heart…a great novel.”—Sebastian Junger “Waitzkin’s propulsive narrative makes for compelling reading from first page to last.”—Gabriel Byrne “A gem of a book.”—The New York Times

Inspired by a true story, artfully told by the author of Searching for Bobby A Bahamian island becomes a battleground for a savage private war. Charismatic expat Bobby Little built his own funky version of paradise on the remote island of Rum Cay, a place where ambitious sport fishermen docked their yachts for fine French cuisine and crowded the bar to boast of big blue marlin catches while Bobby refilled their cognac on the house. Larger than life, Bobby was really the main a visionary entrepreneur, expert archer, reef surfer, bush pilot, master chef, seductive conversationalist. But after tragedy shatters the tranquility of Bobby’s marina, tourists stop visiting and simmering jealousies flare among island residents. And when a cruel, different kind of self-made entrepreneur challenges Bobby for control of the docks, all hell breaks loose. As the cobalt blue Bahamian waters run red with blood, the man who made Rum Cay his home will be lucky if he gets off the island alive . . . When the Ebb Tide cruises four hundred miles southeast from Fort Lauderdale to Rum Cay, its captain finds the Bahamian island paradise he so fondly remembers drastically altered. Shoal covers the marina entrance, the beaches are deserted, and on shore there is a small cemetery with headstones overturned and bones sticking up through the sand. What happened to Bobby’s paradise?

An American tourist finds himself obsessed with a young Costa Rican woman in this novel by the author of Searching for Bobby Fischer and Deep Water Blues . Narrated by a man vacationing in a remote fishing village on the spectacular Pacific coast of Costa Rica, Strange Love tells a story of disappointments, unusual desires, and the things people will do when their dreams haven’t materialized in the ways they had hoped. The man once imagined himself as a great novelist like his heroes Philip Roth and John Updike. Instead, he has spent thirty years working as an exterminator in filthy basements and elevator shafts. The young woman he meets in Costa Rica, Rachel, grew up in the shadow of poverty, loss, and trauma, yet she possesses an uncanny talent for storytelling, the very gift the man himself lacks. Now, along with her sister, she has pieced together a life running the Fragata Lounge, a ramshackle bar on the beach, where their aunt flirts with the American tourist and not-so-subtly reminds Rachel that her youthful appeal is fleeting, her chance to escape this place diminishing with each passing day. As Rachel shares her story with the man, he is mesmerized—by her beauty, the details of her past, and the way she tells of them. Soon he finds himself hinting that he is in fact the wildly successful author he once dreamed of being—and that he has the power to change her life . . . Praise for Fred Waitzkin “Compelling.” — GQ on Mortal Games “Vivid, passionate, and disquieting.” —Martin Amis, The Times Literary Supplement , on The Dream Merchant “Sophisticated, literary, and intelligent.” — Kirkus Reviews on The Dream Merchant “Engaging and affecting . . . The setting may draw the reader in as much as the characters do.” —James Blair, English Plus Language Blog , on Strange Love “ Strange Love is a hot, smart and irresistible read.” —Harvey Blume, literary critic“One of the things I love most about Fred Waitzkin’s writing is his ability to transport me to other places. . . . His stories are immersive and masterfully woven. . . . Rachel’s story is heartbreaking. It will take its toll on you. It will find the deep places of your heart and rip at them.” — The Plucky Reader

The Last Marlin is an unforgettable memoir of growing up in the 50s. Young Fred is a Jewish boy stretched between the divergent values of parents who cannot tolerate one another. Fred's father, Abe, is a brilliantly talented salesman whose relentless will drives him to succeed, whatever the cost. He marries Stella, an abstract artist, a student of De Kooning and Hans Hoffmann, but also the daughter of a wealthy industrialist with whom Abe forges an alliance. When the marriage flounders, Fred's world is assaulted, and he must negotiate the tense family divide. Scenes range from Long Island synagogues and smoky nights with legendary painters, to the boats of drug smugglers in Bimini and the marlin-rich waters of the Gulf Stream. Fred sinks boats and battles thousand-pounders, believing that fishing is the answer to all his problems.