Coens doing Chabon!

After winning plaudits aplenty (and likely an Oscar or two) adapting the work of an author no stranger to prizes himself, the Coen brothers have decided to focus on the work of another award-winning writer.

Their target is Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, set in the frozen wastes of Sitka, Alaska. As the local Jewish settlers face displacement at the hands of the US government (who want to turn the town over to Alaskan natives), a noir-flavoured murder mystery swirls around the death of a chess prodigy who may be the next messiah. Yes, Chabon – the man who brought us the epic Kavalier & Clay – doesn’t tend to create simple plots for his books.