num_pages: 432
description: The brilliantly original new novel from Michael Chabon, author of THE ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER &amp; CLAY and WONDER BOYS.What if, as Franklin Roosevelt once proposed, Alaska – and not Israel – had become the homeland for the Jews after the Second World War? In Michael Chabon’s Yiddish-speaking ‘Alyeska’, Orthodox gangs in side-curls and knee breeches roam the streets of Sitka, where Detective Meyer Landsman discovers the corpse of a heroin-addled chess prodigy in the flophouse Meyer calls home. Marionette strings stretch back to the hands of charismatic Rebbe Gold, leader of a sect that seems to have drawn its mission statement from the Cosa Nostra. Meyer is determined to unsnarl the meaning behind the murder. Even if that means surrendering his badge and his dignity to the chief of Sitka’s homicide unit – his fearsome ex-wife Bina.A novel of colossal ambition and heart, THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN’S UNION interweaves a homage to the stylish menace of 1940s film noir with a bittersweet fable of identity, home and faith.
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 Perennial