《The Yiddish Policemen's Union》

The brilliantly original new novel from Michael Chabon, author of the Pulitzer prize-winning 'The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered 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. Proud, grateful and longing to be American, the Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant, gritty, soulful and complex frontier city that moves to the Yiddish beat. Now, after sixty years of federal neglect, 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. He and his half-Tlingit partner, Berko Shemets, can't catch a break in any of their outstanding cases. Landsman's new supervisor is the love of his life -- and also his worst nightmare. And then someone's got the nerve to commit a murder in the flophouse Landsman calls home. Out of habit, obligation and a half-cocked shot at redemption, he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, and soon finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil and salvation that are his heritage -- and with the unfinished business of his marriage to Bina Gelbfish, the one person who understands his darkest fears. At once a gripping whodunit, a love story, an homage to 1940s noir, and an exploration of the mysteries of exile and redemption, "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" is a novel only Michael Chabon could have written.

迈克尔·夏邦（Michael Chabon），当代美国文坛最受瞩目的才子作家。1963年生于华盛顿特区，十岁时立志成为作家，先后就读于卡内基-梅隆大学和匹兹堡大学，在加州大学厄湾校区获得创意写作硕士学位。1988年，年仅二十五岁的迈克尔·夏邦出版其硕士学位作业、长篇小说处女作《匹兹堡的秘密》，创下当时新人小说最高预付版税纪录，上市后造成畅销旋风，也为他赢得"塞林格接班人"的美国文坛金童美誉。他于1995年出版的第二部长篇小说《天才少年》也大获成功，被改编成电影，由迈克尔·道格拉斯和托比·麦奎尔主演。2000年，迈克尔·夏邦出版第三部长篇小说《卡瓦利与克雷的神奇冒险》，助他在三十八岁之龄赢得普利策小说奖，成为过去三十年来最年轻的普利策长篇小说奖得主。一些评论家认为：夏邦写出了无数作家穷其一生梦寐以求的"伟大的美国小说"，而该书描写的，却是向来受主流文坛轻视的主题：漫画。2007年出版的长篇小说《犹太警察工会》融合科幻和侦探小说类型小说元素，先后荣获星云奖、雨果奖、轨迹奖等科幻小说大奖。美国电影奇才科恩兄弟将把该书拍成电影。最新长篇小说《电报大道》被誉为"21世纪版'米德尔马契'"，并入围IMPAC文学奖、《洛杉矶时报》图书奖等多个重要文学奖项的评选。此外，迈克尔·夏邦著有短篇小说集、散文集、童书、青少年小说多部，还曾担任电影《蜘蛛侠2》编剧。 迈克尔·夏邦常被评论家与约翰·契弗、纳博科夫等现代经典作家相比。而他对类型小说、流行文化的兴趣，也使得他的作品丰富多样，难以界定。