ISBN: 1573661902 9781573661904

Category: Fiction / General

Page count: 158

<b>2021 Big Other Book Award Fiction Finalist</b><br> <br> <i><b>A fiercely ecstatic tale of betrayal and self-sacrifice</b></i><br> <br> <i>Messiahs</i> centers on two nameless lovers, a woman of east Asian descent and a former state prisoner, a black man who volunteered incarceration on behalf of his falsely convicted nephew, yet was “exonerated” after more than two years on death row. In this dystopian America, one can assume a relative’s capital sentence as an act of holy reform—“the proxy initiative,” patterned after the Passion.<br> <br> The lovers begin their affair by exchanging letters, and after his release, they withdraw to a remote cabin during a torrential winter, haunted by their respective past tragedies. Savagely ostracized by her family for years, the woman is asked by her mother to take the proxy initiative for her brother—creating a conflict she cannot bear to share with her lover. Comprised of ten poetic paragraphs, <i>Messiahs</i>’ rigorous style and sustained intensity equals agony and ecstasy.<br>