Ron Segal brings a novel about the limits of memory to the JCC tonight

What happens when a man whose memories carry historical weight begins to lose them? That question sits at the center of Delicate, Ron Segal’s novel about an Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor confronting dementia after his wife’s death. Tonight, Segal will discuss the book with fellow novelist Sam Sussman at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan, in an evening presented with Nu Reads. A harpist will accompany the authors. Talk about a romantic, literary inclined Monday night.

The novel’s protagonist, Adam Schumacher, is trying to preserve something intimate: the story of his relationship with his late wife, Bella. He returns to Germany decades after fleeing the Nazis, attempting to put their life together into words while his recollections become increasingly unstable. Published by Ayin Press and translated into English by Philip Simpson, Delicate is the current selection from Nu Reads, Jewish Book Council’s subscription program, which delivers a selected Jewish book every other month alongside author conversations and reading materials

For Jewish readers accustomed to discussions of memory as a collective responsibility, the premise introduces a difficult personal complication. Adam’s history makes other people invested in what he remembers, but he has his own priorities about what deserves to survive him. A marriage can occupy the foreground of a life that others understand primarily through the Holocaust.

In her October 23 review for Jewish Book Council, Justine Orlovsky-Schnitzler identifies that tension as central to the novel: Adam wants room to determine which losses define him, even as his ability to recount them deteriorates. Her review also describes moments of absurdist humor within the book’s somber premise. That makes tonight’s discussion an opportunity to hear Segal address the choices involved in writing a survivor whose relationship to remembrance is complicated by illness and private grief.

And there’s more ahead for Delicate: Segal is adapting the novel, Nu Reads’ sixth selection, into an animated film.

Sussman brings his own connection to the reading series: his novel Boy from the North Country was its inaugural selection, and he was a National Jewish Book Award finalist for Debut Fiction. Jewish Book Council bills tonight’s gathering as a kickoff ahead of Jewish Book Month, giving local readers a chance to encounter the people behind the books together, in person. See you there?

Tickets to tonight’s event, which kicks off at 6:30pm, run between $18 and $36. Snag your here.