The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon: August 23

We'll meet at Ruth's house.

Supplemental materials:

• Chabon interviewed by Kerri Miller for Talking Volumes (2007) about YPU
• Harper Collins Reading Group Guide
• NYTimes review of YPU
• Bio of Chabon from his agency, including links to all kinds of fabulous stuff, including articles and essays Chabon has written and interviews he's given.   
• Wikipedia entry for Chabon, including this paragraph that I thought was interesting (emphasis added and footnotes omitted):

In a 2002 essay, Chabon decried the state of modern short fiction (including his own), saying that, with rare exceptions, it consisted solely of "the contemporary, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story." In an apparent reaction against these "plotless [stories] sparkling with epiphanic dew", Chabon's post-2000 work has been marked by an increased interest in genre fiction and plot. While The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay was, like The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys, an essentially realistic, contemporary novel (whose plot happened to revolve around comic-book superheroes), Chabon's subsequent works — such as The Final Solution, his dabbling with comic-book writing, and the "swashbuckling adventure" of Gentlemen of the Road — have been almost exclusively devoted to mixing aspects of genre and literary fiction. Perhaps the most notable example of this is The Yiddish Policemen's Union, which won five genre awards, including the Hugo award and Nebula award. Chabon seeks to "annihilate" not the genres themselves, but the bias against certain genres of fiction such as fantasy, science fiction and romance.

• Definition of "noir":  2. Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings.
• Steph's blog post