Rachel Baack
Summary: Cyrus Shams is a 28-year-old poet, the son of a mother whose plane was shot out of the sky when he was still an infant and a father whose subsequent emigration from Iran to the United States landed him in an exhausting job at a chicken plant. After recovering from a years-long substance addiction, the young poet becomes fascinated by the concept of martyrs and dying a meaningful death. When Cyrus learns about an artist with terminal cancer who is spending her final days in the Brooklyn Museum talking to patrons, he decides, after some encouragement from his friends Sad James and Zee, the latter of whom accompanies him on the journey, that he has to go see her. Although unsure of his expectations as he approaches conversations with the artist, what Cyrus learns will nonetheless surprise him and, inevitably, readers of his story.
Summary: Cyrus Shams is a 28-year-old poet, the son of a mother whose plane was shot out of the sky when he was still an infant and a father whose subsequent emigration from Iran to the United States landed him in an exhausting job at a chicken plant. After recovering from a years-long substance addiction, the young poet becomes fascinated by the concept of martyrs and dying a meaningful death. When Cyrus learns about an artist with terminal cancer who is spending her final days in the Brooklyn Museum talking to patrons, he decides, after some encouragement from his friends Sad James and Zee, the latter of whom accompanies him on the journey, that he has to go see her. Although unsure of his expectations as he approaches conversations with the artist, what Cyrus learns will nonetheless surprise him and, inevitably, readers of his story.