Messiahs

By Marc Anthony Richardson

2021 Big Other Book Award Fiction Finalist

A fiercely ecstatic tale of betrayal and self-sacrifice

Messiahs 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.

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, Messiahs' rigorous style and sustained intensity equals agony and ecstasy.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573661902
• ISBN13: 9781573661904
• Release Date: August 2021
• Publisher: F2c
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.6"
• Grade Range: Grade 9 to Postsecondary