Spy's Mate - by Buchanan

Book Synopsis

Set in the late Cold War-era Soviet Union, SPY'S MATE: A NOVEL follows the coming of age of Yasha Basmajian, a young chess prodigy of Armenian origin who rises through the ranks of the Soviet chess establishment with dizzying rapidity. Along the way, however, he must contend with many pitfalls, including KGB operatives who manipulate him, jealous rivals who try to humiliate him, and high officials who threaten him when he asserts his independence, or takes a principled stance. With help from a renegade coach and a team of anti-establishment grandmasters, Yasha manages to run the gauntlet of two Candidates Tournaments until eventually he faces the sinister, predatory World Chess Champion, Evgeny Volosin, in a match where the stakes are nothing less than life and death.

About the Author

Brad Buchanan holds degrees in English Literature from McGill University, the University of Toronto, and Stanford University. He taught British and Postcolonial Literature, as well as Creative Writing, at Sacramento State University (where he also served as English Department Chair) until his retirement in 2016. His poetry, short fiction, and scholarly articles have appeared in more than 200 journals, and he has published four book-length collections of poetry: The Miracle Shirker (Poet's Corner Press, 2005); Swimming the Mirror: Poems for My Daughter (Roan Press, 2009); The Scars, Aligned: A Cancer Narrative (Finishing Line Press, 2019) and Chimera (Finishing Line Press, 2022). He has also published three academic books: Hanif Kureishi: New British Fiction Series (Palgrave Macmillan 2007); Oedipus Against Freud: Myth and the End(s) of Humanism in Twentieth-Century British Literature (University of Toronto Press, 2010); and "'Indict the Author of Affection' Affectation and Catachresis in Hamlet" (McGill-Queens University Press, 2023). His medical memoir, Living with Graft-Versus-Host-Disease, was published by Armin Lear Press in 2021.

He was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in February 2015, and underwent a stem cell transplant in 2016, which involved a lengthy recovery and temporary vision loss. He is currently in remission, though he suffers from graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). When he isn't writing, or hanging out with his daughters, he facilitates recurring online Writing As Healing workshops through the UC Davis Cancer Center, the Sacramento Society for the Blind, and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. He is also a spokesperson and mentor for GvHDnow, an informational group sponsored by Incyte Corporation that raises awareness about graft-versus-host disease. Brad Buchanan currently is resident of Sacramento, CA.