Book Review: The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon

I know alternate history detective fiction isn’t my usual fare, but I’d heard so much about The Yiddish Policeman’s Union (YPU from now on, because that’s a hella long name) that I couldn’t not pick up a copy. Especially when it was a signed first edition on sale in the local remaindered bookshop. So, having never read Michael Chabon before, I shelled out fifty clams and dove into the secret world of Jews. I don’t regret a single dollar. YPU is one hell of a book. The premise of YPU is based on real history – in the 1940′s, the US government was considering leasing sections of Alaska to the European Jewish population so they could escape persecution by the Nazi government. This bill was filibustered primarily by delegate Anthony Dimond – but in YPU, Dimond was hit by a car, and the bill passed. The Jews got Alaska, the native Tinglit got moved out, two million Jews died in the holocaust instead of six, and Berlin got nuked in 1946, neatly ending the war. Jump ahead fifty years, and the Jewish lease on Alaska is running out. In only a few weeks, Alaska will return to the hands of the Tinglit, and the Jews inside will have to either apply for asylum or pack their bags. Meanwhile, the alcoholic detective Meyer Landsman is called to investigate a suicide inside his own apartment building which is he immediately recognises as homicide. Landsman has a couple weeks to solve a murder […]