I’m very, very excited about this book. This ambitious and highly engaging novel poses the question: what if, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed, Alaska – and not Israel – became the temporary homeland for the Jews at the end of WWII? And so Chabon’s ‘Aleyska’ is conceived. In essence this novel is a murder mystery, a Chandleresque, menacing, dark tale, full of Orthodox gangs in side-curls and knee breeches, crime-lord rabbis, black humour and Yiddish wordplay. Our private dick, Meyer Landsman, with his half-Tlingit, half- Jewish partner and his kick-arse sexy boss (his ex-wife) investigates the death of a heroin-addicted chess prodigy who also happens to be the son of a powerful rabbi. But as Landsman comes closer to discovering the killer, the end to their cold temporary homeland also closes in. It’s a wonderful, bittersweet fable of identity, home and faith, and it’s a big call but I think it will be my top book for 2007.

Sanchia Hovey is from Readings St Kilda