Melting Point fuses prose and poetry, realism and literary inventiveness, in dealing with the absurdity of humanity. It’s fourteen stylistically diverse stories, flirt with irony, paradox and enigma.

The most striking thing about Magarian’s collection is its range of interests, the multiplicity of the worlds evoked, and the extreme contrasts among its characters: a feted, reclusive writer; a seductive murderess with a fondness for Bourbon and fellatio; a thief obsessed with a Toulose Lautrec print; a fruit and vegetable merchant who has a genius toddler; and a deep sea diver who can only be free from clumsiness when she is submerged in water.

Stories and characters flow from these molten moments in a series of fictions that touch on ecstasy, excess and the elemental.

Baret Magarian

Books