Words At Large

When Michael Chabon stumbled upon a new edition of the phrase book Say It in Yiddish (Dover), he thought it was a joke. Where in the world, he wondered, could such a book be useful? That's when his imagination took off — and he created the world in his bestselling novel The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (HarperCollins).

Part science fiction, part hardboiled whodunit, the novel takes place a world where Israel doesn’t exist. Instead, Europe’s Jewish refugees who fled the Holocaust ended up in the “temporary” safe haven of the Federal District of Sitka, in Alaska. Now, six decades later, the district is slated to return to Alaskan control, and the vibrant Yiddish community is threatened. But homicide detective Meyer Landsman’s most immediate concern is figuring out who murdered a former chess prodigy virtually right under his nose.

Chabon is the acclaimed author of seven novels, including The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize, as well as two books of short fiction and a collection of essays. The Yiddish Policemen's Union garnered a fistful of prizes, including the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History. A film adaptation of the book, to be written and directed by the Oscar-winning Coen Brothers, is currently in pre-production and is scheduled for release in 2010.

Michael Chabon spoke to Eleanor Wachtel from a studio in Oakland, California. They discuss where his love of the fantastic comes from and why he takes such pleasure in mixing up literary genres.

First aired September 9, 2007 on Writers & Company. [runs 52:18]

Through the summer, different episodes of Writers & Company will air on Sundays and Thursdays. On August 28, listen to a rebroadcast of Eleanor Wachtel's 2003 conversation with the award-winning New Zealand writer Patricia Grace, who is considered a key figure in the emergence of Maori fiction in English.