Martyr!

A Novel

By: Kaveh Akbar

Narrated by: Arian Moayed

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 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.

©2024 Kaveh Akbar (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Incandescent . . . Akbar has created an indelible protagonist, haunted, searching, utterly magnetic. But it speaks to Akbar’s storytelling gifts that Martyr! is both a riveting character study and piercing family saga . . . Akbar is a dazzling writer, with bars like you wouldn't believe . . . What Akbar pulls off in Martyr! is nothing short of miraculous.”—The New York Times Book Review

“A dazzling, thrilling debut novel about identity and loss . . . Martyr! thrillingly depicts why we cobble selves from alloys of words and cultures.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A brilliant and blisteringly alive novel about not just how we go on, but also why. Kaveh Akbar's first novel is so stunning, so wrenching, and so beautifully written that reading it for the first time, I kept forgetting to breathe. I will carry this story, and the people in it, with me for the rest of my life."—John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars

Very unique

An unexpected story, which is beautifully written, in the voice of various characters, and a third party narrator. It explores a multitude of themes, including addiction, guilt, racism, loss, sexuality, dreams, escapism, art, war, and the immigrant experience. It resonates as deeply personal and intense, and in many ways is strange in a wonderful way, original and unique.

Gorgeous language, riveting story revealed at just the right pace, richly developed characters and perfectly performed

Didn’t dislike anything. Poetic but narrative drives you forward with perfect narrator…gives a moving, clear performance that serves the story well

startling

this novel has its own rhythm, it's own nonlinearity. the plot is strong enough to be plot-driven, but we get so much more. a real treasure

Captivating

Story held me tight and hyper-focused through every twist and turn. Truly emotionally captivating.

Fantastic

Loved the stories. Factual and fantastical. The narrator did an excellent job too. Beautiful work! Thank you!!!!

Whispering

why is the narrator whispering instead of reading the book? poor form. was very hard to hear even on headphones.

A familiar memoir for many Iranian immigrants

I like how the story was shaped and particularly found the humorous fantasies (the dialogues and stories about ancient poets) interesting. The story grows as you go through chapters and keep you away from
putting the book aside. I have a mix feeling about the ending and believe it could have ended stronger and maybe different (?)
In overall it’s an app

Lots to think about

Many topics to think about. Some beautiful lines. Sometimes the story took too many turns and I lost the thread.

Devastatingly beautiful

This amazing work weaves an intricate story from the strands of quite distinctive lives that results in a brilliantly woven narrative. The language is so rich and filled with so many linguistic turns that I ended up bookmarking this work more than any since On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. Not only displaying literary finesse, the book faces some of the most daunting challenges of being human head on with with wisdom and wit. The book should be required reading in cross-cultural philosophy courses. Finally, the narration was completely captivating. The vocal oscillation between male and female characters, USonians and Iranians was credible and riveting. The ending broke my heart and lifted my spirit. Most amazing writing.

Wrackingly beautiful and painfully funny!

I can’t even….this is a kind of story about all stories, about how every person you know or see is living a story…and it reminded me to be careful, to be clear and kind with others because all the stories are spinning our experiences around even as we have them. That’s how I felt reading it, though this may just be me. A book this great invites you to feel any and everything as it goes deeper, gets bigger, and surprises you again and again. I couldn’t get a good grip on it and after awhile I didn’t want to.

I don’t think there’s a need to describe the plot here. Listen to the first few minutes and the hook is in. Akbar is brilliant with words and ingenious with images, and I found the presentation of his culture stunning — his love-hate for it, its love-hate for him. I will certainly buy a copy of Martyr so I can experience it on the page, but I’ll also listen to many portions again and again. Also, the reader was magnificent. I could feel him loving the words he spoke, and convincing me with every character he played.

Am I making this book sound beautiful and boring? Believe me, woven in and around all the perfect words is a wild, passion-driven story full of risks, peopled primarily by college students on all kinds of fanciful drugs. Funny? Omg. So funny. I have no idea how this writer crammed so much detailed hilarity as well as longing and suffering into a book of average length. All I’m saying is Kaveh Akbar is my new dude!