Confession in Montreal: A Novella

By Cyrus Mahan

CONFESSION IN MONTREAL
A Novella by Cyrus Mahan

Set in Montreal against the quiet gravity of aging institutions, Confession in Montreal is a literary novella about memory, faith, power, and the cost of silence.
During his student years near McGill University, a young atheist unexpectedly becomes the witness to the final days of an elderly Catholic woman and the moral unraveling of the priest who has spent a lifetime preparing others for judgment while avoiding his own. What begins as a simple request to witness a sacred rite evolves into something far more unsettling: a reversal of roles in which a priest asks to confess, not to God, but to someone outside the system that shaped him.

Through intimate conversations in small Montreal apartments, hospital corridors of memory, and recollections of rural Quebec where the Church once governed not only belief but daily survival, the novella explores how institutions preserve themselves, how communities absorb scandal, and how individuals carry consequences long after official histories move on.
At its core, Confession in Montreal is not a story about religion alone. It is about authority, vulnerability, and the fragile boundary between private remorse and public accountability. It examines what happens when truth leaves the protected language of ritual and enters the secular world, where memory cannot be softened by doctrine.
Written in a restrained, literary voice, the novella blends philosophical reflection with deeply human storytelling. It will resonate with readers who appreciate character-driven fiction, moral complexity, and narratives rooted in history and place.
This is a story about confession, but not the kind spoken behind a screen.
It is about the confessions that remain when systems fail to contain them.
And about the quiet, radical act of being witnessed.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1738912558
• ISBN13: 9781738912551
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Canada College Inc.
• Length: 62 Pages
• Weight: 0.21 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"