Martyr!
by Kaveh Akbar
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD - ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR - A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original, Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction.
"Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite writers. Ever." --Tommy Orange, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of There There
"The best novel you'll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, homesickness." --Lauren Groff, best-selling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother's plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father's life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past--toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.
Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning--in faith, art, ourselves, others.
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Book Details
- ISBN
- 9780593537619
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Authors
- Kaveh Akbar
- Publisher
- Knopf Publishing Group
- Published Date
- January 23, 2024
- Language
- English
- Pages
- 352
- Physical Info
- 1.6 in H x 10 in L x 6.1 in W (1.3 lb)

For me, the strengths of the story, the unique characters, the development of the plot, the unexpected twists – did not outweigh the slow and at times frustrating pace of the book.
Just read it and see how many sentences or paragraphs stop you on your tracks. Can't wait for his next novel.
3.5-stars rounded up to 4-stars.This book was a mixed bag for me. There were a number of things which, ordinarily, would bring my rating way down: the scattershot writing style, the use of highly detailed dreams (no one has these), and using irrelevant characters to help tell the story (e.g., Lisa Simpson, Abdul-Jabbar, Rumi). For me these are unnecessary literary affectations. I'm also not a fan of serious drug-users/drinkers as protagonists.But the story *was* interesting. Some sections were very funny. I loved Cyrus's uncle, Arash, and his tragic story. And the part of the story with Orkideh and Cyrus was original and compelling. Recommended. (Despite the book's cutesy parts.)This was also my first audio book. The narrator - Arian Moayed - did an incredible job. Five big stars for him. But the times I'm in a situation where I can listen to a narrator *and* be intellectually engaged are few. (When is that... driving?, planes?, exercising?) So audio books are a likely dead end for me.
The novel itself is definitely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Don’t miss reading this hilarious, moving wonder. But the hardback I ordered mysteriously— though it arrived well-packed in an unharmed Amazon box—had water damage to the top front cover and the dust jacket. Had to have happened in the warehouse. Sad that they shipped it anyway. Hence the lower overall rating here.
I enjoyed the many prose of the book. The characters were very interesting in how they viewed the world around them.
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