Escapes

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.)