January's Featured Book
January’s featured book is The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, a novel by Michael Chabon.
Book Summary
In the parallel world of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered for sixty years 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. 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 has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where he has washed up, someone has just committed a murder. Out of habit, obligation, and a mysterious sense that it somehow offers him a shot at redeeming himself, Landsman begins to investigate the killing.
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is at once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption.
Excerpt
Links of Interest
Dissent Magazine interviews Chabon.
Listen to an NPR interview with Chabon.
Reviews
Purchase This Book (and Support the Festival)
The Calvin College Campus Store is the official retailer for Festival 2008. You can buy The Yiddish Policemen’s Union for a great price either through their website or in the store. When you buy through the Campus Store, a portion of all sales go to support the Festival of Faith and Writing.