This is the brilliantly original new novel from Michael Chabon, author of 'The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay' and 'The Final Solution'. What if, as Franklin Roosevelt once proposed, Alaska - and not Israel - had become the homeland for the Jews after World War II? 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 - but, behind Rebbe, looms an even larger shadow! Despite sensible protests from Berko, his half-Tlingit, half-Jewish partner, 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 - also known as his fearsome ex-wife, Bina. "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" interweaves an homage to the stylish menace of 1940s noir, with a bittersweet fable of identity, home, and faith. It is a novel of colossal ambition and heart from one of the most important and beloved writers working today.
