Invisible City

by Julia Dahl

When her editor sends her to get a story at scrap yard where a woman's dead body has been discovered, freelancer Rebekah Roberts finds herself face-to-face with the Hasidic community her mother once ran away from.

Rebekah never knew her mother, Aviva. A year after Rebekah's birth, Aviva abandoned Rebekah and her father to return to the Hasidic world she came from.

As Rebekah digs deeper into the life of Rivka Mendelssohn, the murder victim, the more similarities with Aviva Rebekah  she sees.

Married to the much older owner of the scrap yard, Rivka had four children, one of whom had recently died. She reportedly had been making visits to a house on Coney Island designed to help members of the tightly knit, rigidly observant Hasidic community explore life outside the community. There were rumors as well that she was involved in an extra-marital affair.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

By Michael Chabon

If Raymond Chandler had sat down with Isaac Bashevis Singer over a bottle of schnapps, they might have produced The Yiddish Policeman’s Union.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union combines a noir murder mystery with Jewish messianic beliefs in a “what if . . . “ context that springs from an actual historical fact.

Chabon’s starting point is the 1940 Slattery Report that recommended that Alaska be used for temporarily resettling European Jews fleeing the Nazis. Ultimately, Alaska Territory Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives Anthony J. Dimond prevented a vote on the Slattery recommendation from ever taking place.

Giving Up America

By Pearl Abraham

The first thing Deena and Daniel do in their new house in Brooklyn is take down the smoked mirrors that cover the windows and living room doors. The former owners said they were needed for privacy. The next morning Deena comes down the stairs and sees a triangle of light – sun shining through a leaded glass window.

The next six months shed new light on her seven-year marriage to Daniel. Deena’s father, a Hassidic rebbe said the marriage was doomed by the gematria of their names. Deena recalculated the equations stemming from the numbers linked to the letters of their names to justify why Daniel was just the man for her.