Martyr!

‘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
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize for Fiction 2024
Named a best book of 2024 by THE NEW YORK TIMES, Amazon, CBS and TIME
'This book vibrates with love of life, beauty and language. I'm in awe'
Natalie Portman
'Smart, dazzling, different . . . This book is thrilling.'
Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake
'I haven't stopped thinking about it. Sensational.'
Daily Mail
'Nothing short of miraculous'
Junot Diaz, New York Times
'A kaleidoscopic debut'
Guardian
'A literary gem . . . Martyr! invites you to read with a highlighter in hand'
Observer
'Elegant, dizzying, playful.'
Lauren Groff, author of Matrix
'Martyr! is an astounding debut'
The Irish Times
'Brilliant'
LA TIimes
‘Reading Martyr! Is a delight'
The Washington Post
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.
* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24

Kaveh Akbar has been awarded multiple Pushcart Prizes for his poetry, and his collection Pilgrim Bell was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Poetry. He is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, and 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 Radio Hour, and in The Kindergarten Teacher starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. His debut novel, Martyr!, was a New York Times bestseller and a most anticipated book in 2024 for TIME, NYLON, Oprah Daily and Marie Claire. Born in Tehran, he lives in Iowa.