An alcoholic, addict and poet, Cyrus Shams, the orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, finds his obsession with martyrs leading him to examine the mysteries of his past and to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

A book that went way over my head, but I tried to appreciate the writing and the story of generational trauma, addiction, immigration, and American imperialism.

The audiobook narrator was outstanding.