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For sixty years, Jews have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of revelations of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end: once again the tides of history threaten to sweep them up and carry them off into the unknown.
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 revelations of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. Proud, grateful, and longing to be American, the Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant, gritty, soulful, and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. For sixty years they have been left alone, neglected and half-forgotten in a backwater of history. Now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end: once again the tides of history threaten to sweep them up and carry them off into the unknown.
But 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. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life—and also his worst nightmare. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder—right under Landsman's nose. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy. But when word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, Landsman soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, hopefulness, evil, and salvation that are his heritage—and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears.
At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.
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Previews available in: Spanish French Portuguese English Italian
Subjects
literary fiction, hard-boiled fiction, mystery & detective fiction, alternative history, Popular American Fiction, Fiction, Fiction - Historical, Historical - General, Fiction / General, Literary, General, Fiction - General, Unabridged Audio - Fiction/General, Audiobooks, Abridged Audio - Fiction/General, Jews -- Alaska -- Fiction., Narcotic addicts -- Crimes against -- Fiction., Murder -- Investigation -- Fiction., Mystery fiction., homocide, Arab-Israeli War, Holocaust, detective story, Hugo Award Winner, award:hugo_award=2008, award:hugo_award=novel, Murder, Investigation, Jews, Mystery fiction, Narcotic addicts, Crimes against, Detective and mystery stories, Roman, Alternative histories (Fiction), mystery & detective, hard-boiled, literature, Jews, fiction, Alaska, fiction, Fiction, mystery & detective, general, Fiction, alternative history, Drug addicts, Aufklärung, Juden, Kriminalbeamter, Mord, New York Times reviewed, award:nebula_award=novel, Juifs, Romans, nouvelles, Meurtre, Enqu?tes, Uchronies, Roman policier, Homicide investigation, Large type books, Popular american fiction, Fiction - historical, Historical - general, Fiction / general, Fiction - general, Unabridged audio - fiction/general, Abridged audio - fiction/general, Jews -- alaska -- fiction., Narcotic addicts -- crimes against -- fiction., Murder -- investigation -- fiction., Homocide, Arab-israeli war, Detective story, Alternative history, Hugo award winner, Award:hugo_award=2008, Award:hugo_award=novel, Alternative histories (fiction), Mystery & detective, Hard-boiled, Literary fiction, LiteraturePeople
Meyer Landsman, Anthony Diamond, Tlingit, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe; Orson Welles, Berko Shemets, Mendel Shpilman, Naomi, Willie Dick, Hertz ShemetsPlaces
Alaska, Sitka, Hotel Zamenhof, Israel, Palestine, Jerusalem, Germany, Soviet Union, Berlin, Third Russian Republic, Manchuria, Dome of the RockTimes
1948Showing 10 featured editions. View all 34 editions?
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El sindicato de policía Yiddish
2012-06, Debolsillo
paperback
in Spanish
- Segunda edición en Debolsillo
8499081398 9788499081397
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Associacao Judaica de policia
2009, Companhia das Letras
Paperback
in Portuguese
853591384X 9788535913842
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05
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2008, W F Howes
Paperback
in English
- Large print ed.
1407413848 9781407413846
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel
2007, HarperCollins Publishers
Hardcover
in English
- First Edition (1)
0007149824 9780007149827
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The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007, HarperCollins Publishers
hardcover
in English
- First Edition (1)
0007149824 9780007149827
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08
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
2007, Fourth Estate
Hardcover
in English
- printing (1)
0007150393 9780007150397
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Work Description
The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941, and that the fledgling State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. The novel is set in Sitka, which it depicts as a large, Yiddish-speaking metropolis.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union won a number of science fiction awards: the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for Best Novel. It was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.
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- The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Wikipedia
- Chandler with chutzpah
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon - Books - Review ...
- The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon | Quarterly ...
- publishersweekly.com/978-0-00-714982-7
- postmodernmystery.com/the_yiddish_policemens_union
- New York Times review
- thegreatestbooks.org/items/4160
- bookmarks.reviews/reviews/the-yiddish-policemens-union/
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