Genre: Mystery, Alternate History
Author: Michael Chabon
Released: May 2007
Notable Works: Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Wonderboys

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I bought this book in May when it was published with great memories from Chabon?s previous works. Thus I was surprised that I was having a difficult time getting hooked on this book at first. The pacing seemed to be a bit lethargic at first, but I do not know exactly what went wrong. In any case, I decided to pick it up again this weekend and give it another shot.

The book is about a murder mystery in alternate reality. A reality in which an atomic bomb was dropped on Berlin, the state of Israel collapsed in 1948, and Jewish refugees are living in Sitka, Alaska. However, Sitka is about to revert back to American control and many of the residents are basically S.O.L. when the reversion happens. The story begins with Meyer Landsmen, a recently divorced alcoholic detective investigating the murder of a heroin addict.

The problem with this book is that it takes a while to understand that the murder that Landsmen is investigating actually matters. Not to mention that there is enough Yiddish intermingled in the text as to become distracting for those who have to constantly look up translations. Once the story moves forward a bit, the story becomes quite engaging and feels authentic. By the end I could almost believe that there really is a Jewish settlement in Alaska.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but you may have to work through the first bit. While some of the motives of some of the characters as well as the American government seems to be a bit unrealistic, it really doesn?t hurt the story too much, it is an alternative history after all.