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.