Cummings Foundation Grant Recipient
Minas Delirian
Blue Heron Press

Minas Delirian

Regular price $ 10.00 $ 0.00

By Lorne Shirinian

Minas Delirian is an aging writer who lives his life in the Pape Village in Toronto. One morning he wakens to find that he has a large protrusion sticking out from the left side of his torso. With his life now off-balance, he goes to Elena's, his local café, in the hope of making progress on a new book he has promised his publisher. There, he meets Ariadne, a young woman sitting at the next table, writing furiously in her notebook. A mythological moment occurs that leaves Minas believing he is living his life in a labyrinth. Ariadne becomes his helper as Minas’s health declines leaving him with memory, guilt and unfulfilled desire. He has never been able to get over the loss of his fiancée, Araxie, who drowned in Greece shortly before their wedding. His guilt at not being able to save her has haunted him all his life.

Despite his publisher’s urging, Minas is unable finish his book as he suffers from nightmares of book burnings in an authoritarian society. As his end nears in the café, people around him continue to go about their daily lives as he passes away filled with the inner turmoil of his final thoughts.

 

75 pages

Blue Heron Press (2023)