Dalkey Archive Press regrets to announce the death of Romanian novelist Mirel Cană at the age of sixty-three. Mirel Cană, who wrote under the name Șerban Alexandru, had been suffering ill health for some time. His death comes as a sad blow to Romanian literature, particularly in the city of Iași, where he was a well-loved figure, who in the decades after the Revolution ran writers’ workshops, tirelessly fostering young literary talent. He was the author of the highly original, mould-breaking novels Background Noise (1992), Man Is Dead (2001), Diagnosis (2010), and Mallarmé (1995), Albedo (1995) and An Angel, a Dog, an Image (2015), which form the first three volumes in the tetralogy Benedict and Maledict, the fourth volume of which the author was still working on before he died. Dalkey Archive Press will shortly publish the novel Benedict and Maledict: Mallarmé, translated by Alistair Ian Blyth, and we are saddened by the loss of such an important writer, generous, selfless literary mentor, and true friend to so many.
