The day a book stops belonging to its author

Yesterday, The Book of Revelations was officially published. It stopped being a dream, and became a reality.

People often imagine publication as a finish line. In some ways, it is. Years of work, revisions, false starts, second thoughts, and moments of unexpected inspiration have led to this point. The manuscript is finished. The cover is complete. The decisions have all been made.

But publication is also the moment when a book stops belonging entirely to its author.

For a long time, Nan Jaffe existed only in my imagination. I knew her fears, her regrets, her hopes, and the things she carried with her through life. I knew where she had been and, eventually, where she was going. But beginning today, readers will bring their own experiences to her story. They will see things I never saw. They will respond to moments that surprised me, overlook moments I thought were important, and discover meanings that never consciously occurred to me while writing.

That is one of the great mysteries of storytelling.

A novel begins as something intensely personal. It is shaped by one person’s imagination, experiences, questions, and obsessions. Yet if it succeeds, even in a small way, it becomes something shared.

The Book of Revelations is a story about memory, identity, loss, forgiveness, and the possibility of redemption. It asks whether the things that happen to us must define us forever, and whether it is ever too late to become someone new.

I don’t know how readers will answer those questions.

Now, they get to decide for themselves.

And that, I think, is both the frightening and wonderful part of publication.

Thank you for being part of the journey. TV

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