When Alton’s ageing, blind uncle asks him to attend bridge games with him, he agrees. After all, it’s better than a crappy summer job in the local shopping mall, and Alton’s mother thinks it might secure their way to a good inheritance sometime in the future. But, like all apparently casual choices in any of Louis Sachar’s wonderful books, this choice soon turns out to be a lot more complex than Alton could ever have imagined. As his relationship with his uncle develops, and he meets the very attractive Toni, deeply buried secrets are uncovered and a romance that spans decades is finally brought to a conclusion. Alton’s mother is in for a surprise!  (Description from GoodReads)

Loved this book, despite knowing absolutely nothing about bridge.  The characters were very well fleshed out.  Having a picture of a whale before boring bits about bridge (followed by a neat summary of what I missed) was genius.  All this said, I won’t be picking up the game.  I didn’t expect to really enjoy this book, but I trusted Louis Sachar to steer me well — and I was not disappointed.