Martyr!: The Instant New York Times Bestseller

(Hardback)

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A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2024 FOR TIME, NYLON , OPRAH, AND CNN ONE OF SARAH JESSICA PARKER'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR '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 . . . This book is thrilling. It's like watching the novel itself be reinvented' Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake Cyrus Shams is lost. Ever since his mother's plane was senselessly shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby, Cyrus has been grappling with her death. Now, newly sober, he is set to learn the truth of her life. When an encounter with a dying artist leads Cyrus towards the mysteries of his past - an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as an Angel of Death, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter - he finds himself once again caught up in the story of his mother, who may not have been who or what she seemed. As Cyrus searches for meaning in the scattered clues of his life, a final revelation transforms everything he thought he knew. Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction. * Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24

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
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
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
Brilliant * Los Angeles Times *
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) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry. His work has been featured in The New Yorker and the Paris Review, on BBC Radio 4's Start The Week and Front Row, on the New Yorker's Radio Hour, and in The Kindergarten Teacher starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. Born in Tehran, he lives in Iowa.