Wednesday, August 13, 2008

An Alternative History of Israel Wins Hugo

Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union has won the prize for best novel at this year's Hugo awards. (It also won for best science fiction novel at this year's Nebula Awards of the Science fiction and Fantasy Writers Association of America).

The novel :
... takes as its premise Franklin Roosevelt's proposition that Alaska, rather than Israel, becomes the homeland for the Jews after the Second World War
writes Alison Flood in the Guardian :
Some bloggers questioned a work of alternate history winning science fiction's most coveted prize, but Chabon told an interviewer in America that science fiction had "porous" boundaries, and that "there is definitely room in it for a work of alternate history".
Incidentally, maybe you can judge a good book by its cover - I bought the novel in hardback because I couldn't let such a pretty edition pass me by. I look forward to reading it!

You can listen to an extract here and browse inside it here.

7 comments:

cavingliz said...

Not totally relevant, but seeing Israel mentioned, is it true that RTM2 'blacked out' Israel's entry into the Olympic stadium when they were showing all the countries entering the stadium?

Anonymous said...

I have this book sitting on my bookshelf -- must get to it soon. I love Chabon's energetic, playful style....

PS

Anonymous said...

My, such an interesting theme! Which store have this novel?

bibliobibuli said...

bought my copy at mph but it should be everwhere

Anonymous said...

I don't know about RTM2 but I saw Israel on Astro. It doesn't make sense to block it on RTM2 when you can see it on Astro. Why are people so fond of rumour-mongering? if s/he wants to make a case, find someone who's recorded the event, put that part of the video up, blog it somewhere, whatever.

Anonymous said...

Not being an Astro subscriber, I watched RTM - I don't remember Israel coming in unless they were right at the end. I stopped watching up to the last 10 countries. I remember Palestine.

Anon, people only take rumour mongering seriously when no one is sure of the truth. Why is that I wonder.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea. It seems to me that if someone doesn't know it, and wants to know it, that someone should make an effort to find out what it is.