Overview

A YouTube men's fragrance and fashion influencer wanders across an unfamiliar city to meet his estranged daughter on the 'day of his eternal damnation'. On his way, he encounters a host of unsettling experiences and strange characters including 'the cloud lady' an elderly woman with dementia, 'the blocker in-chief' a man whose sole purpose seems to be impeding crowds, 'the conductor' a suburban family man with a mysterious double life, and an old friend--who no longer recognizes him--leading a far-right march, all of who become an ominous mirror to his life. Unusual events continue to unfold around him, including a girl who injures herself in a TikTok stunt, and a debate on AI ending in a fist fight, while his noble attempts to save a fox from a sadistic pervert to impress his daughter backfire. Shortly before his planned rendezvous, he meets a former police inspector who claims to have followed him all day and can see his guilt 'like a dark halo around him'. These characters and events ultimately become a reflection of his guilt, establishing the framework for a macabre tribunal aimed at revealing his potential role (or not) in damaging the important relationships in his life. The Orphean is a completed 60,000-word work of literary fiction. Like Kafka's The Trial (with which occasional parallels are drawn) or Hollywood classic Heaven Can Wait, The Orphean blends fantasy and absurdism with vivid realism in a reflection on 'innate familial guilt' in an increasingly irrational world, while also reflecting the mythical journey of Orpheus into Hades.

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David Antonelli was born in Chicago and educated at Oxford, Caltech, and MIT. He has published 11 novels and one book of poetry. His film credits include multi award-nominated feature Inbetween (2008; 8.6/10 on IMDb) and Finding Rudolf Steiner (Official Selection Calgary International Film Festival 2006), He is currently a Professor at Lancaster University. and runs an Instagram page (@davidmichaelantonelli) with weekly reels reviewing books and music.

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