'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

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2024
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, AMAZON, TIME AND SARAH JESSICA PARKER
ON BARACK OBAMA'S SUMER READING LIST 2024


'Smart, dazzling, different . . . This book is thrilling.'
Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake

'An absolute jewel of a novel'
Tommy Orange, author of Wandering Stars

'A kaleidoscopic debut'
Guardian

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}

About the Author
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.

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 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
It's so, so incredible -- Kaia Gerber
I haven't stopped thinking about it. Sensational. * Daily Mail *
A kaleidoscopic debut... a novel that comes at you from every conceivable direction * Guardian *
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 *



Book Information
ISBN 9781035026081
Author Kaveh Akbar
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Picador
Publisher Pan Macmillan