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.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
‘His almost ecstatically smart and sassy new novel...Chabon is a spectacular writer...[and] is a language magician, turning everything into something else just for the delight of playing tricks with words...Chabon's ornate prose makes [Raymond] Chandler's fruity observations of the world look quite plain...He writes like a dream and has you laughing out loud, applauding the fun he has with language and the way he takes the task of a writer and runs delighted rings around it.’ Guardian
'He is the most wonderful vaudeville performer.' Philip Hensher, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’
‘Michael Chabon’s brilliant new novel starts with a bang...It hums with humour. It buzzes with gags...Superb images also team in this long novel: the accumulated reading experience is one of admiration, close to awe, at the vigour of Chabon’s imagination...a hilarious, antic whirl of a novel.’ Sunday Times
‘A divine gumshoe romp.’ Sam Leith, in the Spectator ‘Books of the Year’
'Chabon has written such a dazzling, individual, hyperconfident novel that it's tough to work out who wouldn't have fun reading it. If the thriller plot doesn't get you (and it's easily the equal of any detective story in the past five years) then the exuberant style and the sackfuls of great jokes will... Whichever way you cut it, “The Yiddish Policemen's Union” is pure narrative pleasure, high-class stuff from cover to cover. Only a shmendrik would pass it up.' Independent on Sunday
'What really impresses about Chabon's eighth book is the author's ability to take a far-off, unfamiliar landscape and make it so densely, vividly imagined that 50 pages in the reader feels like they've know it forever.' Daily Mail
'A marvellous, masterly reinvigoration of the detective genre.' Daily Telegraph
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
£ 3.19
Within U.S.A.
Book Description Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 521X7W000611
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 0007149824-11-16171348
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780007149827
Book Description Hardback or Cased Book. Condition: New. The Yiddish Policemen's Union 1.49. Book. Seller Inventory # BBS-9780007149827
Book Description Condition: New. Brand New! Not Overstocks or Low Quality Book Club Editions! Direct From the Publisher! We're not a giant, faceless warehouse organization! We're a small town bookstore that loves books and loves it's customers! Buy from Lakeside Books!. Seller Inventory # OTF-S-9780007149827
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. This is a New and Unead copy of the first edition (1st printing). Seller Inventory # 000871
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine. 1st Edition. AS NEW FIRST EDITION FIRST PRINTING. FINE hardcover book & Near Fine DJ (very slight wear one corner).Bright clean square tight. Shelf 514. Seller Inventory # 335355
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Very Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Fine. First Edition - First Printing. First edition, first printing with a full number line starting with a 1. A very fine and unread copy in a very fine dust jacket, as new, now in a clear removable protective cover. Bubble wrapped and shipped in a well padded, sturdy box. A finalist for the Edgar Award for Best Mystery of the Year, and Winner of the Nebula Award and a finalist for the Hugo Award for best novel of the year. Purchased new and never read. SIGNED by Michael Chabon for me on the title page. Not price clipped, inscribed, remaindered, or otherwise marked. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 012369
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. New. Fast Shipping and good customer service. Seller Inventory # Holz_New_0007149824
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. BRAND NEW FIRST EDITION FIRST PRINTING. FINE hardcover book & DJ. UNREAD.Bright clean square tight crisp. Shelf 1050. Seller Inventory # 335035