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Martyr!: A Novel
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.
“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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Community Reviews
Mixed reviews with some of us just loving it, and others not so much. There was some content we felt was contrived, but it did make for interesting discussion.
The author of this book is a poet first and you can tell. It's so incredibly, beautifully written without being too much. After reading it, I have a list as long as my arm of some of my favorite quotes. A couple call-outs:
- "Fashion is a capitalist weapon." Boom. He said that.
- "The only difference between a coal miner and a prostitute is our retrograde puritan values about sex. And misogyny." Mind. Blown.
NGL, I was dragging my feet about reading this one but it's for one of my book clubs and the clock was ticking on my library loan. I'm not great with emotions and feelings (lol) and was preparing myself for all of them and the potential emotional spiral they might lead me to. But as soon as I cracked this book, I was done for and could not put it down. A lot of that was because of the artistry in the writing, but also because of how compelling the characters and story were.
It's hard not to read this through the lens of our current political climate in the U.S. It would be tough to be an Iranian immigrant to the U.S. in any decade, but recent political events skew my imagination that much more. Akbar's depictions of the U.S. President also are chilling and hit a little different than they might had this book come out even one year earlier.
I can personally relate to so much of this book. The constant introspection and morbid thoughts, alcoholism and recovery, abandonment issues, the American immigrant experience, frustrations and disgust with late capitalism, but I could never communicate them so flawlessly as Akbar does.
On the flip side, there are parts of it I cannot relate to at all, which are somehow even more meaningful and had me thinking about the experience of people who AREN'T just like me. The tough choices that have to be made and whether that makes the decision makers brave or selfish or maybe a little of both.
This is one of those books that stops you in your tracks, makes you stop breathing for a minute, and causes your brain to start whirring in a never ending circle of questions and musings. It leaves you feeling high and confused and content all at once. Cannot recommend this one more. The perfect book club read so you can discuss and analyze all.the.things.
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