A searching, soulful debut novel about art, mortality, and the courage required to live authentically.
A newly sober Iranian-American poet obsessed with martyrs searches for meaning in the shadow of his mother’s death. Kaveh Akbar’s stunning debut asks the biggest questions with lyrical precision—a meditation on faith, art, and sacrifice that shimmers with intelligence and heart.
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Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel arrives like a revelation—a brilliant, searching meditation on faith, art, and what it means to give yourself over completely to something larger than yourself.
Martyr! follows Cyrus Shams, a newly sober Iranian-American poet grappling with the death of his mother—shot down in a plane over the Persian Gulf when he was an infant. Haunted by her absence and his own thirst for meaning, Cyrus becomes obsessed with martyrs: those who sacrifice everything for belief, for art, for love. His quest leads him from the Brooklyn Museum to the hospital bedside of a dying artist, and finally toward a reckoning with his own life’s purpose.
This is a novel that dares to ask the biggest questions while remaining deeply, achingly human. Akbar—already celebrated as one of America’s most vital poets—brings that same lyrical precision to prose, crafting sentences that shimmer with intelligence and heart. The result is a story about grief and inheritance, addiction and transcendence, that feels both timeless and urgently contemporary.
Perfect for readers who love:
Whether you’re curled up in our shop on a foggy morning or reading by the water’s edge, Martyr! is the kind of book that stays with you long after you’ve turned the final page.
A searching, soulful debut novel about art, mortality, and the courage required to live authentically.
Martyr! is a triumph. Kaveh Akbar has written a novel that is both a profound meditation on art and mortality and a deeply moving story of one man's search for meaning. This is a book that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.
A sweeping, luminous novel about art, grief, and the search for meaning in a world that often feels meaningless. Kaveh Akbar has written a masterpiece.
Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a stunning debut—a novel of ideas that never loses sight of the human heart. With prose as precise and luminous as his poetry, Akbar has created an unforgettable portrait of a young man in search of transcendence.
Martyr! is a work of staggering beauty and intelligence. Kaveh Akbar has given us a novel that is both deeply personal and universally resonant, a meditation on art, faith, and what it means to live a life of purpose.
A debut novel of rare power and grace. Akbar writes with the precision of a poet and the expansive vision of a master storyteller.
Akbar's debut novel is a profound meditation on grief, art, and the search for meaning that showcases the same lyrical brilliance that has made him one of our most celebrated poets.
An extraordinary debut that announces Akbar as a major voice in American fiction.
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