Avner Landes's new novel, The Delegation, explores the little-known story of two Soviet Jews, Solomon Mikhoels and Itzik Feffer, sent by Joseph Stalin to the West during the Second World War to raise funds and support for the Soviet war effort. Blending fact and fiction, the book delves into the complex relationship between the two emissaries as they navigate American society, encounter figures like Albert Einstein and Paul Robeson, and confront their own roles within a repressive regime.

The narrative is layered with metafictional elements, including a fictional author struggling with the boundaries of historical storytelling and his own personal history. Landes reflects on the challenges of writing Jewish-themed fiction in the current era, especially in the wake of recent events in Israel, and comments on the shifting landscape of Jewish literary culture.

The novel ultimately examines how individuals and communities construct narratives to make sense of their realities, often ignoring uncomfortable truths. Landes's work is both a madcap adventure and a meditation on complicity, memory, and the enduring need for honest storytelling.