num_pages: 618
description: For sixty years, Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end. Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage. At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
language: English
title: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
titlecomplete: The Yiddish Policemen's Union
characters: Naomi Landsman, Ester-Malke Shemets, Berko Shemets, Meyer Landsman, Hertz Shemets, Mendel Shpilman, Itzik Zimbalist, Bina Gelbfish, Alter Litvak
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Jewish, Literature, Novels, Alternate History, Fantasy, Crime
ratings_count: 75768
places: Sitka, Alaska
awards: awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Hugo Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Nebula Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Locus Award
category: Best Science Fiction Novel, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Hammett Prize, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: California Book Award
category: Fiction (Gold), awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: John W. Campbell Memorial Award
category: Best Science Fiction Novel, awardedAt: 1199174400000
name: Edgar Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: Premio Ignotus
category: Mejor Novela Extranjera, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Sidewise Award
category: Long Form, awardedAt: 1262332800000
name: Seiun Award 星雲賞
category: Best Translated Long Form
publisher: Harper Large Print