The Yiddish Policemen's Union: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"These are strange times to be a Jew."''}}

 

 

The year is 2007 and nobody in the Federal District of Sitka knows what the future will be made of. The rain-soaked territory in the Alaska Panhandle became the last refuge of the Jews after the state of Israel was stillborn in 1948, and the United States is going to reclaim it in a few months. Meanwhile, [[Hardboiled Detective|hard-boiled]] and chronically depressed detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has a murder case on his hands. In the very rathole of a hotel where he has washed up, a man with a false identity has been executed, contract-style.

Teaming up with his long-time partner Berko Shemets, a Tlingit Native American and convert to Judaism, Meyer tries to elucidate the case before the deadline of Reversion, when the entire district will cease to exist and he'll likely be out of a job. The investigation takes him into the reclusive world of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, where word had it that the murder victim might have been the Messiah of prophecy...

 

 

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* [[Achievements in Ignorance]]: Landsman spends much of the novel trying to figure out how the perp entered the victim's hotel without being seen, and ultimately concludes {{spoiler|that he entered through some underground tunnels.}} It turns out {{spoiler|that the perp simply walked through the front door and, when presented with the accusation, has no idea what Landsman's talking about.}}

* [[All Jews Are Ashkenazi]]: Sitka society is almost entirely based on Ashkenazi culture, to the point that Yiddish is the common language. This is justified by other Jewish cultures such as the Separdim, Mizrahim, Habashim, etc. remaining in their home countries after Israel was crushed. Having won the war, the countries had no need to expel the remaining Jews.

[[Category:Literature]]

[[Category:Michael Chabon]]