AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WATERSTONES DEBUT PRIZE
A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE OBSERVER, THE NEW YORK TIMES, AND THE NEW YORKER
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
Cyrus Shams has always been lost. He's grown up tangled in the mysteries of his past - an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter, and his mother, whose plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby. Now, newly sober and maybe in love, he's headed for an encounter that will transform everything he thought he knew. Can a final revelation change the truth of Cyrus's life?
Electrifying, funny, and all-consuming, Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a masterpiece.
'Dazzling' Ann Patchett
'Profoundly moving' Elif Shafak
'Gorgeous' Tommy Orange
'Radiant' Lauren Groff
'Stunning' John Green
'Miraculous' The New York Times
'Sensational' Daily Mail
'Kaleidoscopic' The Guardian
* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24
Review: 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 Akbar's 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 haven't loved a book this much in years. Kaveh's 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 good-a fever dream, a reckoning, a heartbreak, a shattering and mending, a delight-its 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 couldn't put down. Buy this book! -- Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club
Akbar's 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 can't 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 lover's favorite kind of book, offering plenty to think about and discuss, all of it couched in brilliantly rendered prose that's a pleasure to read. Let's hope that Kaveh Akbar's 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 *