Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Divergence: 1939 CE
What if: Alaskan Congressional Delegate Anthony Dimond was run over by a cab in 1939. Without
his opposition, Congress passed the King-Havenner bill to establish a Jewish refugee
district in the Alaskan panhandle, and the enclave's population was greatly increased
following the destruction of the nascent Israeli state in 1948.
Summary: Decades later, as the Sitka federal district nears dissolution and re-integration into
Alaska, a police shammes investigates the murder of a junkie who might have been a tsaddik
and potential messiah.
Comments: Working title was Hotzeplotz.
Published: HarperCollins (0007149824BUY); HarperCollins UK/Fourth Estate (0007150393); HarperLuxe
2007 (0061376949); SFBC 2007; Harper Perennial 2008 (0007149832BUY, 0007150938).
Published: Excerpt "The King in Black", in The Virginia Quarterly Review, vol. 82 no. 4 (Fall 2006).
Original in: English.
Translation: German by Andrea Fischer as Die Vereinigung jiddischer Polizisten, Kiepenheuer
& Witsch 2008 (3462039725).
Awards: Winner: 2007 Nebula for best novel. Winner: 2007 Sidewise Award for best long-form
alternate history. Winner: 2008 Hugo for best novel. Winner: 2008 Locus Award for best
science fiction novel. Nominee: 2007 BSFA Award for best novel.
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