In “Saint!,” the writer Kaveh Akbar transforms a lamenting young fellow’s quest for importance into a puncturing family adventure.
Cyrus Shams, the heart-wrenching protagonist at the center of Kaveh Akbar`s searing debut novel, is a true Rushdie.
Just a few months after the birth of Cyrus, Loya boarded a plane from Tehran to Dubai to visit his brother Arash.
Flight 665 had 66 children on board – Silas was to be number 67, but Loya decided to leave his son at home due to his young age.
Her tragic death irrevocably shook the Shams family and plunged Arash into an even deeper malaise: “He began to see ghouls, demons, angels, and Iraqi soldiers from his windows.
” ” — and forced Silas’s father Ali to emigrate with his son.
to America to start his new life.
Ad Skip Ad His fascination with martyrdom grew, and soon Cyrus was wallpapering his apartment with photos of ‘‘people for whom death mattered.
She is there to meet a cancer-stricken Iranian artist who spent the last days of her life at the Brooklyn Museum, informing all visitors about her death.
This artist, Orchide, with her thin voice and hairless skull, teases Cyrus about becoming a cliché, ‘‘another death-obsessed Iranian,‘‘ and describes the course of Cyrus’ life with her secrets.
He took the Shams family to Iran and returned to the pre-Flight 665 people.
We meet Ali in a time before chickens, before Cyrus, and before heartbreak.
