The Yiddish Policemen’s
Union is a novel by Michael Chabon that takes place in an alternate
history. Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel and winner of a Hugo
Award, the novel postulates that during WWII, Alaska was set aside as a place
for Jewish refugees. As a result, only two million Jews died in the Holocaust,
Hitler defeated Russia, Berlin was destroyed by a nuclear bomb, and John F.
Kennedy married Marilyn Monroe.
But the Jews’ time in Alaska is up, and the territory is set
to revert to the United States’ control. In the chaos of the reversion, a dead
Jew is found in a hotel room, a bullet in his head. This looks like a job for
Detective What’s-His-Name (I can’t remember), a typical hardboiled detective
who’s an alcoholic, has daddy issues, a bad love life, and all the world’s bad
luck. In other words, a charming fellow.
