It is generally agreed that agents and publishers today like their authors to arrive with a built-in audience, or a track record of sales.
Such was not the case for author Ron Segal.
His novel, Delicate, was originally written in Hebrew and published in Israel in 2010, and translated for a German audience that year. Popular enough in Israel to receive a grant from the Israel Cinema Project to be adapted into a short film, and widely reviewed in Germany, Segal could not find an American publisher for an English translation.
Recently, Jewish Book Council facilitated an introduction between Segal and Ayin Press, an independent publishing platform committed to “transformative” Jewish literature. Delicate, translated into English by Philip Simpson, is being released to JBC readers through their book club, Nu Reads, on September 22, and will be published to a wider audience in 2027.
Inspired by Holocaust testimonies, Delicate is narrated by a survivor whose memories are too tangled for the reader to understand what is true.
Today, we grapple with the reality that so few survivors remain to tell their stories. In writing Delicate, Segal was not deterred by this problem, but rather spurned by it: how do we keep telling these stories when we are losing the original storytellers? Says Segal, “[Emotional truth] is another layer of remembrance, an attempt to capture what a historical experience felt like when facts alone cannot convey its emotional reality.”
The 'emotional reality' of the Holocaust in the US is not as it is in Israel
Perhaps this is why American publishers refused Segal for so many years. The “emotional reality” of the Holocaust, for Americans of this century, is that it is old news and Jewish victimhood is no longer central to it. But Segal was never discouraged by the journey.
“I like to think that Delicate has reached American readers at exactly the moment it was meant to…as we experience a surge in antisemtism, sadly, in the United States.”
Delicate marks the sixth book chosen for Nu Reads, a JBC subscription book club that shares Jewish books with an audience that wants them, even when the American publishing industry is not as supportive.
JBC CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter chose Delicate for its exploration of passing down Jewish stories and history. “Delicate pushes us to think differently about memory, storytelling, and Holocaust remembrance. Its nuances and perspective make the book uniquely powerful, and JBC is proud to have played a role in bringing it to English readers.”