Syringa

by Ian Orti

From Syringa Vulgaris, or the lilac tree exploding into life only to expire in its prime, Syringa is a literary thriller set on New Year's Eve in Berlin where the labyrinthine story of a decades-long love affair is retold by an ex-journalist as he awaits his own assassination. The doomed couple's only living link is an AWOL German soldier named Hissel, hired to kill three people connected to the woman's disappearance, but his own disappearance months earlier becomes the missing puzzle piece as the clock ticks down to each character's fateful moments of atonement and brutal revenge.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller

100 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2024

About the author

Ian Orti is a Canadian writer who travels extensively. He writes books which sometimes win awards and frequently writes articles and columns in magazines, as well as the occasional story or poem in a literary journal. He is a senior editor of The Barnstormer, a literary sports journal.

he is currently working on lots of other stuff.

His work has been describe as:

"...unlike anything I've read before."
---- Kate Watson, Atlantic Books Today

“an engaging, energetic read, its themes lively and intriguing in their labyrinthine philosophy and its language witty and with the density of poetry that you can slice through to discover new insights.”
----Prairiefire Review of Books Vol 10, No 3 (2010)

“L (and things come apart) is an extended prose poem about a new relationship springing from the ashes of a lacerated and incinerated relationship. Orti has constructed a dark, enticingly murky tale that might or might not be a romance. The book is deceptively rich and complex in form and imagery despite its comparative brevity.
As it culminates, [the book] reveals its circular structure, similar to the likes of Under the Volcano, with which it shares a hypnotic quality. This is a book that will be something new and fresh with each re-reading, which it deliciously invites.”
---- Bookgaga December 18, 2010

“Orti's world has a consistent absurdist tilt, a kind of Ionesco lite. the novel too is fuelled by a kind of eerie nowhereness in its inner lives and urban spaces. The final messaging that these characters and their readers are bound up in the usual dance of fiction – real people finding meanings in imagined people – pulls the magic rug from under Orti's weirdly seductive, sharply rendered dream world. Happily, his surging imagination mostly outpaces his impulse to lecture. This strange city and its lost souls don't easily leave the mind.”
---- Jim Bartley, Saturday Globe and Mail, Review: First-Fiction, August 6, 2010

Dreamlike in tone, Orti's work is at once odd and humorous. Linear time is insignificant; the future and the past weave their way in and out of the narrative along with alternative endings found in stories called, aptly, “Epilogue,”"Last Call,”and“Postscript.”
---- Mark Patterson, Rover: Montreal Arts Uncovered, February 28, 2010

Reviews

[Manuela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set against the smoky, surreal backdrop of New Year's Eve in Berlin, Syringa is a literary thriller drenched in melancholy and mystery. At its heart lies a decades-long love affair, unraveled by an ex-journalist who is waiting for his own assassination. Through his fragmented recollections, we learn about a woman who vanished, a soldier named Hissel who was sent to kill those tied to her disappearance, and the tangled web of memory, guilt, and longing that connects them all.

This novel feels like reading a poem whispered in a dream. Ian Orti’s writing style is rich, lyrical, and evocative—there were passages I found myself rereading just for the language alone. The atmosphere is beautifully melancholic, and the emotional undercurrent of loss, love, and regret is ever-present.

However, while the prose often enchanted me, I found myself wanting more from the story itself. The plot, though intriguing in concept, felt too elusive in execution. The narrative left large gaps—presumably to be filled in by the reader’s imagination—but for me, they were a bit too wide. I longed for more specificity, more grounding in the events that were being hinted at rather than fully explored.

Still, Syringa stirred something poetic in me, and that’s not nothing. It’s a book that’s more about feeling than following—a good fit for readers who enjoy introspective, experimental fiction with a noir-like atmosphere and a deep emotional pulse.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Mary Polzella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A literary novella set in New Year's Eve in Berlin. An ex-journalist, still in love with a woman who has disappeared, recounts the fractured pieces of his long love affair with her to a stranger named Hissel, while waiting to be assassinated. Hissel, an AWOL soldier, has been hired to kill a number of people connected to the woman's disappearance and as time ticks down to midnight, the story unfolds.

The author's writing style is melancholic and atmospheric, beautifully written and it draws you into the telling of the story. The story wasn't explored in great detail but left to the reader's imagination to fill in the rest, purposely (I think) to create our own version of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Paul Wagenbreth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this decidedly elliptical le Carre-like love story, with its often lyrical prose and Hemingway-like feel and fast enough pace to make it easily finishable in one sitting, but mostly I was just put off by how it was so hard to get a firm grasp on in the way of Malcolm Lowry’s “Under the Volcano,” which I was often put in mind of while reading, that it's virtually impossible for me even just to say exactly what the novel is about without fear of getting something wrong. But if literary elusiveness is your thing, this is for you.

[Claudete Takahashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berlin comes to life on New Year's Eve through the recollections of an ex-journalist about the woman he loved but disappeared while waiting to be killed by the German soldier, Hissel, who was hired to kill three people who were connected to the woman. The story is beautifully written but in my opinion, there was a lack of depth in the characters and in the events surrounding them, however, in spite of the previous comments, I found the book entertaining and worth reading by its literary beauty.
I thank the author, his publisher, and NetGalley for the copy of this book.

[Louise Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I read a book and enjoy it for the way it is written more than for the story being told and this is one such book. It’s beautifully written and has an almost noir feel as the author uses powerful descriptive language to bring Berlin to life. The story itself did not grip me but I do think the language and prose is enough to warrant this book being added to any TBR pile.

[mary Lovelace · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of incredible beauty and sadness. The richness of loss stands at the core of a story at times brutal, at times lovely.