A new Chabon interview with The Washington Post sheds some light on the origins of Gentlemen of the Road, which hit stores this week.

The book takes place in the 10th-century empire of Khazaria, a kingdom of Jewish nomads in what’s now southern Russia. Chabon says he picked up the idea around 1982 after discovering Borges.

“I remember wondering if this article or encyclopedia entry or whatever it was might be some kind of elaborate historical hoax,” Chabon says. “A medieval empire at war with the Vikings and Byzantium that lasted for more than four centuries, that was famous all over the world at the time, and everybody was Jewish! What? How come nobody ever told me about them? The Khazars felt like secret knowledge, and secret knowledge is definitely a source of inspiration for me.”

To read the rest of the interview, follow the white rabbit.

It’s been a while since Chabon wrote anything superhero related. These days, quasi-genre fiction seems to be more his thing.

But for those of you who got into reading Chabon because of a certain novel’s comic book ties, you might want to pick up Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy, which carries an introduction by Chabon. (The news was first reported by Artnet News and Fashion Week Daily.)

The book is being released in limited distribution as part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute in New York presents a summer-long show on the same subject. The show will feature around 70 ensembles and promises “to reveal how the superhero serves as the ultimate metaphor for fashion and its ability to empower and transform the human body.”

The show is scheduled to run May 7 to Sept. 1, 2008.

In case you missed it, Gentlemen of the Road, Chabon’s newest novel, hit stands this week. It collects the serial adventure stories first published in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year. It’s suggested retail price is $21.95. Go get it!