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The Delegation
Moscow, 1943. The Soviet Army has defeated the Nazis at Stalingrad, but continuing to defend the Motherland will require arms, money, and allies around the world. To rally support, Joseph Stalin dispatches a delegation of two Jewish artists, the world-renowned actor (and self-appointed Head Jew of the Soviet Union) Solomon Mikhoels and his Party handler, the middling poet Lieutenant Colonel Itzik Feffer.
From the pyramids of Egypt to the Polo Grounds of New York City, the garrulous Mikhoels
entertains crowds with bold and problematic pronouncements, while Feffer reflects on the
dimming of his revolutionary spirit and wonders when and how he turned into a timid middle-aged functionary who now spends his days obsessing over the state of his intestinal tract.
In pursuit of their noble cause, Mikhoels and Feffer meet a wealthy lawyer turned artist and his idiot cousin, entreat a tongueless heiress, compare notes with an oversexed Albert Einstein, and share the stage with the great Paul Robeson.
Less than ten years later, they would both be murdered.
Truth and fiction eye each other warily in this true story as told by a fictional author struggling to pen an epic work of historical fiction.
From the pyramids of Egypt to the Polo Grounds of New York City, the garrulous Mikhoels
entertains crowds with bold and problematic pronouncements, while Feffer reflects on the
dimming of his revolutionary spirit and wonders when and how he turned into a timid middle-aged functionary who now spends his days obsessing over the state of his intestinal tract.
In pursuit of their noble cause, Mikhoels and Feffer meet a wealthy lawyer turned artist and his idiot cousin, entreat a tongueless heiress, compare notes with an oversexed Albert Einstein, and share the stage with the great Paul Robeson.
Less than ten years later, they would both be murdered.
Truth and fiction eye each other warily in this true story as told by a fictional author struggling to pen an epic work of historical fiction.
- GenresFiction
360 pages, Paperback
Published April 8, 2025
3 people are currently reading
104 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 25, 2025
Thanks to this one's totally unique tri-level structure I couldn't help thinking of it as hierarchical, with the "premier league" fictive content up top, the note from the author of the fiction (that is, Izzy Shenkenberg, not Avner Landes) in the "championship league" middle, and the footnotes as a shifty unstable foundation aka League One. The structure subtly seems to suggest sacred text sans seeming defamatory, more to relate to how the world is broken, multi-planed at least, and we have an obligation as citizen readers to, if not put it back together again, than at least to make sense, with commentary and questioning and the telling of stories, of distinctions we perceive. With Infinite Jest's famous footnotes, DFW wanted to fracture the narrative and he recommended that the reader wield two bookmarks. Along those lines, The Delegation opens with a suggestion that three bookmarks be used to track one's progress through its three levels -- or maybe layers is a better word, with its geological, psychological (superego, ego, id), and onion and/or cake-related resonances? Anyway, loved early on the criticism in the Notes section of schmaltzy Borsch Belt, Klezmery, kvetchy stereotypical expectations of Jewish art, and loved how this expectation is subverted with the focus on a black American singer athlete Communist. I also very much liked creatively misreading the title as "The Relegation" when I found my eye preferring to track along the "lower leagues" before returning to the main attraction. Published by a new small press capable of producing a becoming paperback, there's nothing "low" about the level of the artistry, energy, and innovation on display here. When you peel back this one's layers, it's all cake.
May 8, 2025
This book is so smart and so funny and so original. The “official” description below sums up the main part of the book very well, and it was a great read, but what I loved even more were the fictional “author’s note” and the footnotes. In fact, I got so pulled in by the author’s note on page one that I actually read that running commentary all the way to the end and THEN went back to read the main story and the “commentaries” on each section. (This is much less complicated than I’m making it sound, and you can do it in any order you want, which is part of the joy of the book.)
If seeing the name Stalin in the description makes you wonder whether the book is bleak or political, fear not. It’s a lot of fun. An outstanding read.
If seeing the name Stalin in the description makes you wonder whether the book is bleak or political, fear not. It’s a lot of fun. An outstanding read.
February 25, 2025
blurbed, with immense pleasure:
Avner Landes will squash your "crisis of chutzpah." His brilliant, defiant, kinetic, extensively researched and formally inventive new novel THE DELEGATION, simultaneously holds up a funhouse mirror to history, to the leakiest, most vulnerable aspects of the self, and to our current moment. Never has there been a "Jews-Like-Dead-Jews book" so acutely, outrageously, unabashadley alive. At once iconic and iconoclastic, hilarious and distressing, THE DELEGATION is an astounding work to rip open, remix, reconfront, and reread.
Avner Landes will squash your "crisis of chutzpah." His brilliant, defiant, kinetic, extensively researched and formally inventive new novel THE DELEGATION, simultaneously holds up a funhouse mirror to history, to the leakiest, most vulnerable aspects of the self, and to our current moment. Never has there been a "Jews-Like-Dead-Jews book" so acutely, outrageously, unabashadley alive. At once iconic and iconoclastic, hilarious and distressing, THE DELEGATION is an astounding work to rip open, remix, reconfront, and reread.
March 24, 2025
Avner Landes’ The Delegation is more than a novel. It’s a unique achievement: a rich, ground-breaking experience, both challenging and rewarding.
-Barry Maher, author, The Great Dick, a tale of Terror for Men and the Women They Hurt.
-Barry Maher, author, The Great Dick, a tale of Terror for Men and the Women They Hurt.
May 30, 2025
After four decades of reading, I know what I like. Fiction. Long fiction. At least 400 pages. And nothing that makes me flip back and forth—I’m directionally challenged enough off the page. So it was initially unnerving and ultimately wildly satisfying to have The Delegation break a few of those rules—and to find myself absolutely loving it, not in spite of that, but because of it.
Avner Landes' "The Delegation" comes in under 400 pages, but don’t let the (relative) brevity fool you. It’s layered, ambitious, disorienting in the best possible way, and an absolute delight.
It opens in 1943 Stalinist Russia. Actor Solomon Mikhoels and poet Itzik Feffer are sent by Stalin on a fundraising tour to appeal to world Jewry. But from the outset, the reader knows what the two (at least consciously) don’t: their mission is not salvation; their fate is sealed. That knowledge adds poignancy to their moments of triumph, charm, and earnestness.
The novel is written by a fictional character —a struggling writer whose “author’s note” and then footnotes add new layers entirely. I started out flipping between narrative and notes, and by the end, found myself reading the author's note all over again as a standalone experience.
What emerges in those notes is something startlingly vulnerable and relatable: a portrait of an author grappling with his own limitations, insecurities, and identity—and the blurred lines between truth and fiction.
And in case things weren't weird and wonderful enough, the narrator is a hemorrhoid. Feffer’s hemorrhoid. Yup. Really.
And it works. You don’t just witness Feffer’s internal unraveling—you inhabit it through his gut. Amazing.
This book is as multi-layered in its meaning as it is in its structure. It brings to life what it meant to be a Jew in Stalinist Russia: valuable until you weren’t, visible until it became dangerous. It quietly mirrors the American Jewish experience too—where acceptance has its own uneasy price tag—and ultimately asks what it means to be a Jew now, with all that historical weight in your bones.
But most of all, it reminded me how thrilling it is to be surprised. To let go of my reading “rules.” To discover that I still have the capacity to be challenged, stretched, and absolutely transported. Thanks Avner Landes for that.
The Delegation is dazzling and delightful. I loved how it both entertained me and challenged me in equal measure.
A brilliant and unforgettable masterpiece.
Avner Landes' "The Delegation" comes in under 400 pages, but don’t let the (relative) brevity fool you. It’s layered, ambitious, disorienting in the best possible way, and an absolute delight.
It opens in 1943 Stalinist Russia. Actor Solomon Mikhoels and poet Itzik Feffer are sent by Stalin on a fundraising tour to appeal to world Jewry. But from the outset, the reader knows what the two (at least consciously) don’t: their mission is not salvation; their fate is sealed. That knowledge adds poignancy to their moments of triumph, charm, and earnestness.
The novel is written by a fictional character —a struggling writer whose “author’s note” and then footnotes add new layers entirely. I started out flipping between narrative and notes, and by the end, found myself reading the author's note all over again as a standalone experience.
What emerges in those notes is something startlingly vulnerable and relatable: a portrait of an author grappling with his own limitations, insecurities, and identity—and the blurred lines between truth and fiction.
And in case things weren't weird and wonderful enough, the narrator is a hemorrhoid. Feffer’s hemorrhoid. Yup. Really.
And it works. You don’t just witness Feffer’s internal unraveling—you inhabit it through his gut. Amazing.
This book is as multi-layered in its meaning as it is in its structure. It brings to life what it meant to be a Jew in Stalinist Russia: valuable until you weren’t, visible until it became dangerous. It quietly mirrors the American Jewish experience too—where acceptance has its own uneasy price tag—and ultimately asks what it means to be a Jew now, with all that historical weight in your bones.
But most of all, it reminded me how thrilling it is to be surprised. To let go of my reading “rules.” To discover that I still have the capacity to be challenged, stretched, and absolutely transported. Thanks Avner Landes for that.
The Delegation is dazzling and delightful. I loved how it both entertained me and challenged me in equal measure.
A brilliant and unforgettable masterpiece.
July 2, 2025
The Delegation is such an amazing novel for so many different reasons.
First, there is the complexity of the novel structure. There are three separate narratives: the historical fiction of the two main characters, the actor Mikhoels and the poet Feffer who are sent by Stalin to America to drum up financial support. There is the “author’s note” from the fictional author Izzy Shenkenberg, who confesses his difficulties with writing a “historical novel,” such as the research involved, navigating the personality of finicky academics, and the self-doubt all writers face when writing.
What I also enjoyed was how Shenkenberg is a recurring character from Avner’s last novel. Meiselman: The Lean Years (which I highly recommend). And of course, the third section is the footnotes. Having these three narratives forces us to reflect on our reading experience, something we mostly take for granted. At first, I used bookmarks. I’d read one section to a certain point, mark my place, then go back and catch up with the other storyline. The problem I had was each storyline I switched to, I was enjoying it so much that I didn’t want to go back to where I had left off for the previous one. I soon gave up with this strategy and finished the Shenkenberg plot and then went back to the Mikhoels and Feffer plot, reading footnotes when needed. While reading this way, I kept thinking about how these narratives compete with each other for the reader’s attention. How these plotlines not only speak to, but change the “truth” of the work, especially since the book deals with history, who has the right to tell a particular story, exactly what fiction is, or even should be.
I won’t keep going about that. BUT I do want to say that I thought the book was sad, hilarious, and sometimes cringeworthy in the best of ways. I liked all of the characters (not that this is something I need to have as a reader) particularly Feffer, and cared about his struggle. I also thought the Shenkenberg section was hilarious. As far as other elements, I really loved the authority of the voice, the interiority, and again, just how much I appreciated what the novel was doing stylistically.
The Delegation is an extraordinary novel and I really hope you check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
First, there is the complexity of the novel structure. There are three separate narratives: the historical fiction of the two main characters, the actor Mikhoels and the poet Feffer who are sent by Stalin to America to drum up financial support. There is the “author’s note” from the fictional author Izzy Shenkenberg, who confesses his difficulties with writing a “historical novel,” such as the research involved, navigating the personality of finicky academics, and the self-doubt all writers face when writing.
What I also enjoyed was how Shenkenberg is a recurring character from Avner’s last novel. Meiselman: The Lean Years (which I highly recommend). And of course, the third section is the footnotes. Having these three narratives forces us to reflect on our reading experience, something we mostly take for granted. At first, I used bookmarks. I’d read one section to a certain point, mark my place, then go back and catch up with the other storyline. The problem I had was each storyline I switched to, I was enjoying it so much that I didn’t want to go back to where I had left off for the previous one. I soon gave up with this strategy and finished the Shenkenberg plot and then went back to the Mikhoels and Feffer plot, reading footnotes when needed. While reading this way, I kept thinking about how these narratives compete with each other for the reader’s attention. How these plotlines not only speak to, but change the “truth” of the work, especially since the book deals with history, who has the right to tell a particular story, exactly what fiction is, or even should be.
I won’t keep going about that. BUT I do want to say that I thought the book was sad, hilarious, and sometimes cringeworthy in the best of ways. I liked all of the characters (not that this is something I need to have as a reader) particularly Feffer, and cared about his struggle. I also thought the Shenkenberg section was hilarious. As far as other elements, I really loved the authority of the voice, the interiority, and again, just how much I appreciated what the novel was doing stylistically.
The Delegation is an extraordinary novel and I really hope you check it out. You won’t be disappointed.
February 6, 2025
In this novel-within-a-novel, the main story revolves around two Soviet Jewish artists (an actor and a poet) who are dispatched by Stalin in 1943 to the US and elsewhere to rally support and raise funds for the Soviet Army’s continuing war efforts against the Nazis. Another layer is added through the author’s notes running through the entire book, in which the fictional, contemporary author discusses his struggle with his writing and research. There are also dozens of footnotes for the author’s notes (many of which are based on real events). The main story - inspired by the real-life delegation of actor Solomon Mikhoels and poet Itzik Feffer, both of whom were assassinated in Stalin’s purges of Jewish artists within 10 years after their trip - is a rollicking road trip during which the pair meet with wealthy Jews, Albert Einstein, Paul Robeson and others. Mikhoels attempts to entertain crowds while worrying about what Feffer is writing in his tiny notebook…poems or notes for the Soviet police? The result is a rich, complex novel, blending humor and pathos, that reimagines our ever-present themes of identity and survival in a fresh and compelling way.
August 17, 2025
What a great, funny, heartbreaking book. It felt very Coover-ish (and I had that thought right before the epigraph from The Public Burning, one of my favorite books!) in all the fun ways. I didn't know anything about the effort by the Soviet Union to raise money from America's Jews during WWII, and it's always fascinating reading stories about people who are so committed to their cause they can't see how horrific it is, how dangerous, how bent and broken. And Feffer is such a sad, clownish dupe - how awful to think he's merely a stand-in for millions of people (Jews and otherwise) who were and continue to be suckered in by the lie.
Landes is a really terrific writer.
Landes is a really terrific writer.
May 12, 2025
Outstanding. I like a book that is both light and weighty, so one that ranges from a history of Stalin’s purge of Jewish artists to the egotistical angst of a fictional novelist via a real poet’s fictional hemorrhoid, all with the same unsentimental humour and humanity, is quite a find as far as I’m concerned. It’s interesting to me that the comedy, though it doesn’t dull the impact of the horror, does make it easier to receive and assimilate.
The novel itself – The Delegation – is flanked by the fictional author’s autobiographical commentary and his commentary on the commentary – something I expected to make the reading more challenging, but in fact it broke it up for me in my own reading rhythm (there is no dependency between the footnotes and specific points in the novel). And it added layers of interest, both historical and fictional, sometimes differentiating history from the fictionalized version, sometimes taking us down rabbit holes in the author’s inner world. There were points where the notes felt like an alibi, preempting criticism of the (real) novel’s treatment of the subject. At others it seemed to open a breathing space between the real people and their fictional versions – often striking. This seemed obliquely to honour the real Feffer and Mikhoels, their “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.”
I loved Landes’ earlier novel, Meiselman: The Lean Years, so was excited to realise that our fictional author is none other than Shenkenberg, Meiselman’s unwitting nemesis from that book. It was fun to have his trajectory fleshed out (including the odd post facto kick in the ribs for poor Meiselman – and some vindication). We can also infer the progress of Schenkenberg’s hemorrhoid: this is clearly a writer who doesn’t let any experience go to waste (so to speak).
As the book progresses, though, we move beyond the world of Meiselman and zoom out from a different angle in our scrutiny of the small-mindedness of librarians, writers, artists and revolutionaries, to notice history coercing its way in, crunching together ideals and interests, loyalties and toilet troubles, and spitting them all out. Shenkenberg grows on us, despite the absurd triviality of his preoccupations when set up as a frame for the dilemmas of Soviet Jewry in World War II. And as Feffer and Mikhoels are systematically stripped of any delusions of grandeur, we catch glimpses of their genuine heroism. To paraphrase the Mishna, “In a place where there is no humanity – see if it’s possible to be a mensch.”
The novel itself – The Delegation – is flanked by the fictional author’s autobiographical commentary and his commentary on the commentary – something I expected to make the reading more challenging, but in fact it broke it up for me in my own reading rhythm (there is no dependency between the footnotes and specific points in the novel). And it added layers of interest, both historical and fictional, sometimes differentiating history from the fictionalized version, sometimes taking us down rabbit holes in the author’s inner world. There were points where the notes felt like an alibi, preempting criticism of the (real) novel’s treatment of the subject. At others it seemed to open a breathing space between the real people and their fictional versions – often striking. This seemed obliquely to honour the real Feffer and Mikhoels, their “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns.”
I loved Landes’ earlier novel, Meiselman: The Lean Years, so was excited to realise that our fictional author is none other than Shenkenberg, Meiselman’s unwitting nemesis from that book. It was fun to have his trajectory fleshed out (including the odd post facto kick in the ribs for poor Meiselman – and some vindication). We can also infer the progress of Schenkenberg’s hemorrhoid: this is clearly a writer who doesn’t let any experience go to waste (so to speak).
As the book progresses, though, we move beyond the world of Meiselman and zoom out from a different angle in our scrutiny of the small-mindedness of librarians, writers, artists and revolutionaries, to notice history coercing its way in, crunching together ideals and interests, loyalties and toilet troubles, and spitting them all out. Shenkenberg grows on us, despite the absurd triviality of his preoccupations when set up as a frame for the dilemmas of Soviet Jewry in World War II. And as Feffer and Mikhoels are systematically stripped of any delusions of grandeur, we catch glimpses of their genuine heroism. To paraphrase the Mishna, “In a place where there is no humanity – see if it’s possible to be a mensch.”
June 17, 2025
The Delegation isn’t about the war itself, but about what comes next: trying to remember it, explain it, turn it into something that fits in a book. The main character, Yosef, is supposed to be doing just that but he unravels in the process. The story is kind of absurd and funny in a dark, awkward way, but it’s also really about guilt, pressure, and what it means to inherit the memory of things you didn’t live through. As someone who’s genuinely interested in WWII and its aftermath, I found a lot to think about here even when the narrator was frustrating or losing the thread. It’s not clean or polished in the way a traditional war novel might be. But that’s the point. It’s about not having neat answers. Would recommend if you're interested in how war stories get passed down, and distorted, in the years after.
April 8, 2025
Perhaps it's a tad loserish and sneaky to write a review for one's own book, but today is the book's pub date, and I'd like to tell you a little about the book, some things you won't see in the back jacket copy. I never thought I'd write a work of historical fiction, an ambivalence that works its way into the book's plot. In negotiating this doubt, I quickly understood that the book would have to be a completely different work of historical fiction. I looked to other books, like Percival Everett's THE TREES, Malaparte's THE SKIN, Michael Winkler's GRIMMISH, and many others, that showed me there were other ways to write history. I hope you find that I've created something unique. And if you are disappointed, you can always feel free to leave a one-star review here.
May 29, 2025
This is a GREAT historical fiction novel, extremely well-written, but it is also a lot more. The main storyline is a really interesting one that I was not aware of, about the Soviet, and really worldwide, Jewish movement around fighting Hitler and the Nazis. But it is AT LEAST one novel within a novel, because Landes has woven in multiple fascinating storylines, snippets, and rabbit holes (some I oh-so-wish he would write another book about), and a lot of humor that he unfolds in a series of footnotes, and footnotes of footnotes. I also enjoyed the cameo of one of his characters from his last novel, Meiselman: The Lean Years.
February 2, 2025
In his dazzling new novel, Avner Landes crafts a startlingly intellectual choose-your-own-adventure story that brings the past into the present, exploring how the legacy of the past affects the stories we tell today. Told in an energetic voice edged with sharp humor, THE DELEGATION is a stunner.
March 18, 2025
Itzik Feffer was killed in Moscow on the Night of the Murdered Poets in 1952 and now he's back. In this comic-tragic historical novel, voices from the past echo and twist into the present. The Delegation is many things and all of them are excellent. Read it at least twice.
July 1, 2025
So so funny and surprising. Best new novel I've read in 2025 so far.
I wrote 1,500 words on it here:
https://thevisionarycompany.net/2025/...
I wrote 1,500 words on it here:
https://thevisionarycompany.net/2025/...
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews