The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon (Ajedrez Chess)

Ajedrez. Chess. The Yiddish Policemen's Union - Michael Chabon (Cartoné)

Acclaimed Novel Prominently Featuring Chess

This is the brilliantly original new novel from Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning 'The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay'.

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 Landsman 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.

The New York Times:
"Since the collapse of his marriage, Landsman has been living in the seedy Hotel Zamenhof, where, one night, “somebody has put a bullet in the brain of the occupant of 208, a yid who was calling himself Emanuel Lasker.” One of the few clues in the room is a chessboard with a mystifying configuration of pieces (...) [H]is account of Landsman’s detective work remains suspenseful and artfully done."

The Washington Post:
"[A] strange and breathtaking novel."

Sam Leith, The Spectator, Best Book of the Year 2007:
"A divine gumshoe romp set in an imaginary Jewish homeland in Alaska."

Pages 411

HarperColiins Pubhlishers 2007