Martyr!

A Novel

By: Kaveh Akbar

Narrated by: Arian Moayed

Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR SO FAR FOR 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW • 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.

©2024 Kaveh Akbar (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Incandescent . . . 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 . . . Akbar is a dazzling writer, with bars like you wouldn't believe . . . What Akbar pulls off in Martyr! is nothing short of miraculous.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A dazzling, thrilling debut novel about identity and loss . . . Martyr! thrillingly depicts why we cobble selves from alloys of words and cultures.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“A brilliant and blisteringly alive novel about not just how we go on, but also why. Kaveh Akbar's first novel is so stunning, so wrenching, and so beautifully written that reading it for the first time, I kept forgetting to breathe. 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

Beautiful story

Loved everything about this book. Feel in love with the characters and the writing. The performance was spot on as well. Must listen.

Exceptional reader! Difficult read.

Readers facility in moving between voices, accents, languages, and modes of story-telling was exceptional.
Story was gripping, compelling, and remains with me long after I finished listening — even though there were long passages that made me wince, with the main character’s convoluted introspection (“is this just my ego?”). Same with dialogues between characters who havejust experienced life-changing revelations or losses, which move almost immediately into abstract reflections and literary references.
Though I almost stopped listening after about 2 hours, I feel richly rewarded in the end.

Artistic and raw, felt so real

loved this book. it's so unique and delicious. Will definitely listen to again. the narration is amazing as well, great accents and character impersonation.

Overhyped

This book would have been better as a series of short stories. While the writing is lyrical the plot was disjointed and the main character did not seem to develop much throughout the book. Good narrator and performance.

We live until we die

This book first caught my attention because of the cultural world it created. However, I began to personally relate more to the themes as it continued. The craftsmanship, mix of historical fiction and magic realism kept the story moving and the characters were well rounded. My most lasting takeaways, however, were the existential themes and how to manage being a fully living human until death inevitably comes. I found myself pausing and contemplating quite often while listening to the book. The narration added that special touch of being at a live performance and helped with pronunciation of words not in my vocabulary.

One of the best novels I have ever read/heard.

I’m in my seventies. I cannot remember a novel that has moved me more (hyperventiliating after some chapters, crying with others) while simultaneously challenging me with profound and ultimate themes regarding—no joke—the meaning of life and death and art. How Akbar moulded all of this into a novel with drama and surprise and characters to love is beyond my comprehension. The audio narration is perfect.

Best contemporary fiction read since Infinite Jest

What an immense pleasure to listen to this book. Truly a treat. A challenge and a joy. 11/10

Searching for meaning and love

The story is very well written and read, but the (author and) protagonist is lost and keeps searching for meaning, without ever finding it. His search for love, along with those of most of the other main characters, is painfully realistic for someone who has been neglected, abandoned, and warped by alcohol, drugs, and despair. The deliberately ambiguous finish is perhaps intended to offer hope, but it represents one more escape into mood altering grasping for something out of reach in the real world. Having said that, perhaps my interpretation is exactly what the author intended for his readers.

Arian Moayed served with his voice. Really great read.

The characters were all very good. The story was really easy to get into and to follow. It made me more curious about what Iran was like during the time Cyrus’ mother and father and uncle lived prior to his being born. Really great novel I cannot wait for more.
Please someone hire Arian Moayed to read more books

Marvelous, Haunting Story

I loved this book from beginning to end. The prose sounded as poetic as the poetry, and the haunting narration increased my enjoyment. I was hoping that the poetry books that are also available would be available, narrated by the same narrator. As far as I can tell, however, no Audible version is available. I will order as a physical book.