The Delusionist

Fiction. Kobzar Literary Award, Finalist. Eric Hoffer Award, Shortlist. City of Victoria Book Prize, Finalist. Art, love, and history furnish the setting in this tale of fate and destiny. Set in Vancouver in 1962, we follow Cyril Andrachuk, son of immigrant parents from the former Ukraine, as he makes his way from high school to menial labour jobs, from first love to first heartbreak, from sibling rivalry to malicious family betrayal. Cyril is the only Canadian-born member of the Andrachuk family, his parents and older brother having survived the Holodomor, Stalin's systematic starving of the Ukraine in the 1930s during which two million people died. Cyril's mother carries the scars and memories of a past she can't let go of; she mourns the early death of her husband and feels responsible for the malnourished, brittle bones of her eldest son, Paul. Cyril is a mystery to her: he wants to be an artist--he draws incessantly and talks about going to art school. He draws his late father's tools--saws, drills, hammers, wrenches, everything. When Cyril produces a series of large commemorative Stalin stamps his mother questions her son's insensitivity; when an act of impassioned violence erupts in the house, it is Cyril's sanity that is called into question. The Delusionist is a darkly comic novel about love, loss, creativity, and coming to terms with the horrors of history.

Subtle and elegant, his account of one's man's stumble-filled movement toward his fate commands attention and gives readers new ways to comprehend the process of maturation.--The Vancouver Sun

Buday captures the ambiance of 1962 Vancouver like an archaeologist opening a time capsule...--John Moore, BC BookWorld

...a realistically uplifting portrayal of a child of immigrants who is trying to pull himself out of a rut.--The Globe and Mail