
The World Played Chess
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Robert Dugoni
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Todd Haberkorn
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By:
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Robert Dugoni
About this listen
“A fearless and sensitive coming-of-age story. I loved it.”—Mark Sullivan, bestselling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Last Green Valley.
Bestselling author Robert Dugoni returns with an emotionally arresting follow-up to The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell.
In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer—Vincent’s last taste of innocence and first taste of real life—dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one’s own destiny.
©2021 by La Mesa Fiction, LLC. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Love this!
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Critic reviews
“With his usual narrative mastery, Dugoni takes on the often-overlooked ordeal of boys becoming men and does so fearlessly and sensitively, chronicling the coming-of-age stories of three different men linked by war, friendship, and family. I loved it.” (Mark Sullivan, best-selling author of Beneath a Scarlet Sky and The Last Green Valley)
“A riveting story of boys becoming men and the risks they take along the way.” (Library Journal)
“The World Played Chess is a shining example of a writer at the top of his game, and a deeply thought-provoking take on a man’s coming of age.” (Authorlink)
“Wondrously brilliant and poignant.... While not a Vietnam novel per se, the book resembles Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried and Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War in its sheer emotional resonance. Dugoni, though, seems to be channeling the lyrical storytelling magic of the great Pat Conroy more. The World Played Chess is this generation’s The Prince of Tides and a candidate for best novel of 2021.” (Jon Land, Providence Journal)
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Story
Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early sixties, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow and locate a Russian agent believed to be killing members of a clandestine US spy cell known as the seven sisters. Desperate for money, Jenkins agrees to the mission and heads to the Russian capital.
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Excellent Genre cross of espionage&legal thriller!
- By shelley on 04-10-19
By: Robert Dugoni
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My Sister's Grave
- Tracy Crosswhite, Book 1
- By: Robert Dugoni
- Narrated by: Emily Sutton-Smith
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Tracy Crosswhite has spent 20 years questioning the facts surrounding her sister Sarah’s disappearance and the murder trial that followed. She doesn’t believe that Edmund House - a convicted rapist and the man condemned for Sarah’s murder - is the guilty party. Motivated by the opportunity to obtain real justice, Tracy became a homicide detective with the Seattle PD and dedicated her life to tracking down killers.
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Story not for me--but that's just my taste
- By Kathi on 01-30-17
By: Robert Dugoni
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A Killing on the Hill
- A Thriller
- By: Robert Dugoni
- Narrated by: Robert Dugoni
- Length: 11 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Seattle, 1933. The city is in the grips of the Great Depression, Prohibition, and vice. Cutting his teeth on a small-time beat, hungry and ambitious young reporter William “Shoe” Shumacher gets a tip that could change his career. There’s been a murder at a social club on Profanity Hill—an underworld magnet for vice crimes only a privileged few can afford. The story is going to be front-page news, and Shoe is the first reporter on the scene.
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A Killing on the Hill
- By Danny Harr on 04-10-24
By: Robert Dugoni
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Her Deadly Game
- Keera Duggan, Book 1
- By: Robert Dugoni
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld
- Length: 11 hrs
- Unabridged
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Keera Duggan was building a solid reputation as a Seattle prosecutor, until her romantic relationship with a senior colleague ended badly. For the competitive former chess prodigy, returning to her family’s failing criminal defense law firm to work for her father is the best shot she has. With the right moves, she hopes to restore the family’s reputation, her relationship with her father, and her career.
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Legal thriller filled with twists!
- By Wayne on 03-28-23
By: Robert Dugoni
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The Cyanide Canary
- A True Story of Injustice
- By: Robert Dugoni, Joseph Hilldorfer
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Early in the morning on August 27, 1996, 20-year-old Scott Dominguez showed up for an ordinary day at the fertilizing plant where he worked. By 11:00 am, he was clinging to life, unconscious and suffocating from toxic exposure to cyanide in a tank that was supposed to contain only mud and water. EPA Special Agent Joseph Hilldorfer was tasked with finding out what really happened on that horrific day in Soda Springs, Idaho, but the answers would not be easily uncovered.
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True environmental crime case
- By Wayne on 09-10-17
By: Robert Dugoni, and others
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The Last Agent
- Charles Jenkins, Book 2
- By: Robert Dugoni
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Betrayed by his own country, former spy Charles Jenkins survived an undercover Russian operation gone wrong. The retired family man is through with spy games. Then he learns of a woman isolated in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison. If it’s Paulina Ponomayova, the agent who sacrificed her life to save his, Jenkins can’t leave her behind. But there’s no guarantee it’s her. Or proof Paulina is still alive. To find out, Jenkins must return to Russia and blackmail Viktor Federov, a former Russian officer with his own ax to grind, into helping him infiltrate Lefortovo.
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FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED!!!!
- By shelley on 09-24-20
By: Robert Dugoni
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No Two Persons
- A Novel
- By: Erica Bauermeister
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik, Braden Wright, Carol Jacobanis, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words, in turn, find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives.
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Wow! Just wow!
- By Debbie on 05-11-23
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Charm City Rocks
- A Love Story
- By: Matthew Norman
- Narrated by: Kristen DiMercurio
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Billy Perkins is happy. No, for real. It’s kind of his thing, actually. And why wouldn't he be? He loves his job as an independent music teacher and his apartment in Baltimore above a record shop called Charm City Rocks. Most of all, he loves his brainy teenage son, Caleb. Although not the world’s most traditional parent, Billy has plenty to teach his son about art and manhood before Caleb goes off to college. Margot Hammer, on the other hand, is far from happy. The former drummer of the once-famous rock band Burnt Flowers, she’s now a rock and roll recluse living alone.
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Love!!
- By Kindle Customer on 04-09-25
By: Matthew Norman
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A Fire Sparkling
- By: Julianne MacLean
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor, Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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After a crushing betrayal by the man she loves, Gillian Gibbons flees to her family home for a much-needed escape, but when she finds an old photograph of her grandmother in the arms of a Nazi officer, Gillian's life gets even more complicated. Rattled by the discovery, Gillian attempts to unravel the truth behind the photos, setting her off on an epic journey through the past..... Rattled by the discovery, Gillian attempts to unravel the truth behind the photos, setting her off on an epic journey through the past....
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Wonderful.
- By Amazon Customer on 08-17-19
By: Julianne MacLean
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No Rest for the Dead
- By: David Baldacci - introduction, Laurie H. Armstrong, Sandra Brown, and others
- Narrated by: James Colby, Richard Ferrone, Carol Monda
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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More than 20 New York Times best-selling authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel -- a collaboration that combines the skills of America’s greatest storytellers to produce a gripping, spellbinding mystery.
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Not as good as expected
- By Carrie on 07-12-11
By: David Baldacci - introduction, and others
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American Rust
- By: Philipp Meyer
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation-as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love-that arise from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.
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A Web of Despair and Desperation
- By Darwin8u on 07-16-12
By: Philipp Meyer
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The Hallows
- By: Victor Methos
- Narrated by: Alexander Cendese
- Length: 7 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Ruthless defense attorney Tatum Graham has been living large in Miami, but when his recently acquitted client claims another victim, Tatum has a crisis of conscience. Disillusioned, he heads to his small Utah hometown for a simpler life...but that’s not what he finds. Soon after he arrives, Tatum’s childhood crush offers him a job at the county attorney’s office and assigns him a murder case.
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Narration was distracting.
- By Critter Mama on 04-18-20
By: Victor Methos
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The Lost Story
- A Novel
- By: Meg Shaffer
- Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie
- Length: 10 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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As boys, best friends Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years after their miraculous homecoming, Rafe is a reclusive artist who still bears scars inside and out but has no memory of what happened during those months. Meanwhile, Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator. With his uncanny abilities, he is the one person who can help Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as Rafe and Jeremy.
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Seriously disappointing gay/bisexual nonsense
- By Ashley Allen on 07-21-24
By: Meg Shaffer
What listeners say about The World Played Chess
Highly rated for:
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- Gardengirl
- 02-13-22
Author has gift to tie history and for connections
I love this author as reader- not so much with other books. But he gets it, his audience and also the cadence and focus of his work.
Robert has a gift for these relationships- this book and also Sam Hell, which is extraordinary.
I completely recommend this book and you will not regret the credit or your precious time.
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2 people found this helpful
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- JDNIRAQ
- 02-24-22
A MUST READ FOR VIETNAM VETS
I have just finished listening to the audio book, The World Played Chess, by Robert Dugoni. Being a Vietnam Combat Vet, it is one of the very best books I have read or listened to. I was a 19 year old Scout for an Armored Cavalry Unit in 1969. I did not see quite as much brutal warfare as William did in this book, but I did see more loss of life than one ever hope to see. And, I fall into that type of Combat Vet that does not care to rehash what I lived through in Vietnam. I will now search for other books by Robert Dugoni and hope they are as good.
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1 person found this helpful
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- kennedy
- 09-13-23
Wow 👏
That was tremendous! A book about how we have no clue what small things may impact another person's life. The ripple effect with 2 strangers working together for a short amount of time sharing stories about Vietnam and how these stories are life changing. Excellent writing and great narration... grab a box of kleenex!!!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Soni M.
- 12-20-21
great book
I really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend. The story was well done as was the narrative.
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- Kindle Customer
- 09-26-21
Loved it
Couldn't stop listening once I started and hated for it to end! Great insight of a time that many never understood!
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- Joyce Reece
- 12-24-21
Thoughtful book
This story had me in tears a lot of the time. Tears of sadness and of joy both. Great story with a plot that is still meaningful to this day. Thank you Robert Dugoni for this beautiful novel.
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- Peter
- 02-13-22
Loved it
This was a wonderfully written and narrated book. I can relate to almost every story, not so much the Vietnam references but the growing up stories and teaching (making memories) for my own kids. Thank you Robert!!!
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- S. A.
- 01-18-22
I laughed, I cried…
Robert does an amazing job at drawing you into each of the characters! I was so moved by the stories. Felt myself feeling so much gratitude for the life I have, my children, more specifically my 18 year old son….
I loved that the author narrated the book. You know it’s read in the exact inflection that he wanted it heard.
William , the marine- they were so misunderstood after the Vietnam war. You felt such compassion for him, what he went through…
❤️5 stars!!
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- Chris
- 02-23-22
Very Good Read
This was a very good read and was very entertaining as well as interesting. Some of the Vietnam stories that were shared are similar to what i have heard from my Father so i can tell the author did some solid research.
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- MMB
- 09-06-22
Inspiring Page Turner
This book is one I will share with all my friends and family. I grew up during the Viet Nam was but really had little interest or understanding of it. The lessons Vincent learned from the vets he worked with were invaluable.
the young Vincent and the father Vincent were inspiring characters.
William and his journal brought great depth and understanding to me of the war and the people who fought it.
Robert Dugoni is an incredible writer. I've read everything he's written and he just gets better and better!
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