Aden Polydoros
Aden Polydoros Wants More Jewish Characters in Genre Fiction
The author of "The City Beautiful" speaks with Alma about writing a queer Jewish historical fantasy.
Aden Polydoros wants to write the Jewish stories he wishes he had growing up. With his new novel, “The City Beautiful,” he is part of a wave of new young adult writers creating diverse, compelling and nuanced Jewish characters. In the fantasy novel set in 1893 Chicago, Alter Rosen is an observant young Jew saving up to bring his family over from Romania. When his roommate, Yakov, dies under mysterious circumstances, Alter sets out to find why young Jewish men are disappearing from the city.
The book touches on themes of Jewish assimilation, antisemitism and the push and pull between modernity and tradition — all while keeping you absorbed in a fast-moving plot that centers on a dybbuk, a mystical Jewish demon. Over e-mail, I chatted with Aden about his novel and how real-world antisemitic events inspired his Jewish historical fantasy.
