Gentlemen of the Road

Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
Michael Chabon is best known for The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, and last year’s The Yiddish Policeman’s Union was a bestseller. This story was first published serially, as a deliberately old-fashioned adventure tale, extra verbose with illustrations. Long ago, three people meet at an inn in the Jewish kingdom of Khazaria. Zelikman, a too-thin, blond Frank, and the immense African Amran, who are partnered in crime, find themselves caught up in the struggles of a deposed princeling by the name of Filaq. The tale gallops through exotic lands and a world where large Jewish kingdoms separated the Christian and Islamic realms.