Martyr!

(Paperback)

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Description

Cyrus Shams is lost. A recovering alcholic and a lacklustre medical actor, he has been studying the lives of the martyrs - Qu Yuan, Joan of Arc, Bobby Sands - trying to make sense of the death of his mother, Roya, who was killed when the US Navy shot down Iran Air flight 655, a civilian plane with 290 passengers on board, on her first trip away from Cyrus, her infant son. Haunted by his mother's death, and the fate of her brother Arash, whose own life was consumed by his time serving in Iraq, Cyrus finds he cannot connect to those who love him, or move beyond loss into hope. But Cyrus's life is about to change. On a pilgrimage to New York he meets Orkideh, a terminally ill artist who has decided to live out her last days in the Brooklyn Museum. As the two speak of life and death, Cyrus's past - his lovers, his hopes, his dreams, and the lives of his parents - begins to alter the story of his present, until a final revalation transforms everything he thought he knew. Weaving between voices and dreams, and the lives of civilizations, artists, poets, and kings, Martyr! is a transcendental dbut of loss and belonging from a writer of infinite talents.

Reviews

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
Smart, dazzling, different... a novel of depth and complexity, tragedy and humour . . . This book is thrilling. There's no other word for it. It's like watching the novel itself be reinvented -- Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake
Playful, soulful, kaleidoscopic, honest and profoundly moving -- Elif Shafak, author of There Are Rivers in the Sky
Kaveh Akbar is a radiant soul, a poet so agile and largehearted it comes as no surprise that his first leap into fiction is elegant, dizzying, playful. -- Lauren Groff, author of The Matrix
In Cyrus, Akbar has created an indelible protagonist, haunted, searching, utterly magnetic. But it speaks to Akbars storytelling gifts that Martyr! is both a riveting character study and piercing family saga . . . what Akbar pulls off in Martyr! is nothing short of miraculous. * The New York Times *
Kaveh Akbar renders the full spectrum of life, and death, with great beauty and care -- Raven Leilani, author of Luster
An absolute jewel of a novel. A diamond. I havent loved a book this much in years. Kavehs writing is so thoroughly powerful and gorgeous you can feel it from where dreams come . . . This book does everything. -- Tommy Orange, author of There, There
Martyr! is an astounding debut . . . It feels like holding magic in your hands -- Aimee Walsh, The Irish Times
A kaleidoscopic debut a novel that comes at you from every conceivable direction * Guardian *
I haven't stopped thinking about it. Sensational. * Daily Mail *
It's so, so incredible -- Kaia Gerber
Martyr! will stay in my soul for gooda fever dream, a reckoning, a heartbreak, a shattering and mending, a delightits double-helix of dreams and conversation now part of my own DNA -- Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams
A brilliant debut . . . simultaneously funny and piercing . . . Akbar writes beautifully * LA Times *
Akbar is a black-belt storyteller, and MARTYR! is a page-turner I couldnt put down. Buy this book! -- Mary Karr, author ofThe Liars' Club
Akbars debut is full of love, fury, humour and wisdom. Protagonist Cyrus Shams is coming straight for your heart * People *
I laughed out loud * NPR *
I cant remember the last time a book made me feel like this. Martyr! is simply extraordinary. Kaveh Akbar has written a novel that will stay with me forever. -- Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed
Reading Martyr! is a delight * The Washington Post *
Stuffed with ideas, gorgeous images, and a surprising amount of humor ... The serious fiction lovers favorite kind of book, offering plenty to think about and discuss, all of it couched in brilliantly rendered prose thats a pleasure to read. Lets hope that Kaveh Akbars impressive debut is the first of many novels to come. * The Boston Globe *
Deep-feeling, beautifully bruised ... A darkly comic and heartrendingly earnest work * The San Francisco Chronicle *

Author Bio

Kaveh Akbar has been awarded multiple Pushcart Prizes for his poetry, and his collection Pilgrim Bell (2022) has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry. He has been published in the New Yorker and the Paris Review, among others. Born in Tehran, he lives in Iowa.