Martyr!

Discover the life-affirming debut novel from acclaimed poet Kaveh Akbar: a love letter to the world and our search for meaning - in faith, art, ourselves and those we care for. '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
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. A Book of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and shorlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize for Fiction

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's 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, Marie Claire and CNN. Born in Tehran, he lives in Iowa.