by Robert Löhr
Why: the translator described it this way: There's a novel by Robert Löhr called The Secrets of the Chess Machine about the famous chess-playing automaton that caused a sensation at the court of Maria Theresa. Löhr's flight of fancy is that there was a dwarf who supposedly operated the machinery. It...
Translated from the German by Anthea Bell and narrated by Stephen Hoy. I would love to see a film of this book.