Adventures of Ivan: A Novella

By Melissa Morelli LaCroix

Award-winning Canadian writer Melissa Morelli Lacroix returns with a poignant, music-inspired novella offering rare insight into the most golden decade of one's life: their 90s.
Set during the early months of the COVID-19 lockdown, ninety-seven-year-old Ivan Burtney is confined to his Western Canadian retirement home. Amid solitude and uncertainty, his days are suffused with memories, regrets, and the lingering loneliness of widowhood and lost friends. Yet Ivan continues to find joy and purpose by connecting with family, friends, and community-whether masked, by phone, or through a pane of glass. Through moments of memory, window-side encounters with nature, and unexpected inspiration from television and music, Ivan illuminates the bittersweet beauty and enduring hope that can be found in life's final chapter.

Told through the tender, authentic voice of a Ukrainian-Canadian grandfather and infused with warmth, wit, and empathy, this novella offers a unique perspective on aging, grief, and the sustaining power of connection.

Drawing from her firsthand experience living and working with nonagenarians, Lacroix crafts a lyrical meditation on memory, survival, and the everyday magic found even in lockdown. As a longtime piano teacher, Lacroix weaves music into the fabric of the novella. Each chapter, and the book itself, is named for piano pieces by Aram Khachaturian that animate Ivan's story as he sings long-forgotten Ukrainian songs, recalls youthful adventures, attends an online party, and embarks on fantastic travels with a wise bear, a firebird, and even his departed sister. Ivan's adventures carry him from 2020 back to World War II, through the polio epidemics of the 1950s, and into his childhood as the son of immigrants on the Canadian prairies. What results is an expert literary counterpoint of past and present, reality, and memory.

This moving piece of Canadian literature offers a hint of magical realism and is crafted for readers who cherish stories about love, memory, music, and life's profound transitions.
Chapters: Ivan SingsIvan Can't Go Out TodayIvan Is IllIvan Goes to a PartyIvan and NatashaIvan's HobbyhorseA Tale of Strange LandsExclusive bonus material: Insightful author's notes, reflections on the real-life inspirations behind Ivan's WWII experiences, and a sneak peek at the forthcoming novel, Song of Songs.

This book is entered in the 2025 Kindle Storyteller Award. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a review.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1069663212
• ISBN13: 9781069663214
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: LVM Books
• Length: 146 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"