History Literature / TheYiddishPolicemensUnion

* AntiHero: Landsman, big time.

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub

* TheConsigliere: Baronshteyn to Rebbe Shpilman. He's even a lawyer.

* MaleGaze: Done textually. When Meyer is crawling down a tunnel behind Mina, Chabon spends a good-sized paragraph describing his reactions upon gazing at her ass for the first time in years. With Chabon's characteristic PurpleProse, it comes of sounding like a religious experience.

* TabletopGame/{{Chess}} in general, to the extent that Caissa the goddess of chess is name-[[IncrediblyLamePun checked]].

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Unusually for an AlternateHistory story the incumbent President of the United States is not named, nor is any description given. The reader is left to make up their own mind which conservative politician or Christian fundamentalist religious figure is behind it all.

* AlternateHistory: This is a world in which Germany was nuked in 1946 and Israel didn't make it as country. And, of course, there's a massive temporary Jewish settlement in Alaska. Other minor examplex include the fact that OrsonWelles made his film of ''Literature/HeartOfDarkness''.

->''"These are strange times to be a Jew."''

TheCoenBrothers are currently working on a [[TheMovieOfTheBook film adaptation]] of the novel.

* OhCrap: [[spoiler:Jewish terrorists blow up the Dome of the Rock, setting in motion a massive religious war]].

* AlternateHistory: This is a world in which Germany was nuked in 1946 and Israel didn't make it as country. And, of course, there's a massive temporary Jewish settlement in Alaska. Other minor examplex include the fact that OrsonWelles made his film of ''HeartOfDarkness''.

* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:The plot to destroy the Dome of the Rock.]]

* TabletopGame/{{Chess}} in general, to the extent that Caissa the goddess of chess is name-[[AWorldwidePunomenon checked]].

* GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel: A rare [[InvertedTrope inversion]]. In this world's timeline, Hitler's defeat was actually ''worse'' than it was in our world. Among other changes, Germany was nuked in 1946 and the Holocaust killed only a third as many Jews as it did in RealLife. The book explores how these events (coupled with the collapse of Israel) complicate the lives of surviving Jews.

* [=~Chekhov's Gun~=]: [[spoiler:the Tunnels, the Red Heifer.]]

''The Yiddish Policemen's Union'' is an AlternateHistory detective novel by MichaelChabon published in 2007. It received the Hugo Award for best novel, as well as other awards.

* {{MIB}}: Justified Subversion. Cashdollar and his men fit the trope, but they're not BadassInANiceSuit, they wear thick sweaters, occasionally with a tacky penguin motif. The subversion is justified as it's Alaska in December.

* DefectiveDetective: Landsman is an alcoholic mess with massive issues about family, guilt, religion, and chess.

* TranslationConvention: Most characters are actually speaking Yiddish, which is translated into English. For this reason, certain word choices sound odd, such as referring to perfect strangers as "darling" and "sweetness." Slang Yiddish words, however, are presented unstranslated. When a character swears, it's usually noted as spoken in "American."

* AlternateHistory: This is a world in which Germany was nuked in 1946 and Israel didn't make it as country. And, of course, there's a massive temporary Jewish settlement in Alaska.
** And OrsonWelles made his film of ''HeartOfDarkness''.

* {{Chess}} in general, to the extent that Caissa the goddess of chess is name-[[AWorldwidePunomenon checked]].

* BabyGotBack: Bina Gelbfish, especially when she's crawling down a tunnel in front of Landsman.