This book was given to me by the publisher, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review. Each book leaves you with a unique impression. This book has left me with words and ideas. So, this review is going to be made up of lists of words

Writing is; Satirical, witty, sharp, lyrical, poetic, heart-breaking, and engrossing. Writing is about; trauma, loss, self medication, avoidance, writing, memory, war, America's war on terror and its effects, racism, American imperialism, and late stage capitalism. What did I think? I enjoyed the reading process. However, I must admit that it hasn’t stuck with me. I have a bunch of vague impressions but nothing solid. The writing has a satirical , lyrical, tone and a dreamlike nature. It didn’t blow me away but it was an enjoyable read

3.5 stars rounded down.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I liked the writing in 'Martyr', you can tell that the author is a poet in how lyrical and full of imagery it is.
I liked most of the characters too, they were all interesting and I wanted to know a lot more about them. I especially liked Cyrus's mom and dad's points of view; I found the flashbacks to Iran captivating. I did think that the main character was focused on a little too much and I wish the others had been fleshed out more. I would have loved a book entirely from either of Cyrus's parents and I didn't find him as appealing or interesting as them.
This was a good read and I'll be searching up the author's poems when I get the chance!

Cyrus is a character that I felt a visceral sense of connection with. The way he sees the world, himself, it felt like I was opening wounds that had never healed.

Kaveh Akbar is a poet, which I didn’t know about before reading this book, but makes so much sense because of the way sentences are structured. There were so many lines I saved, sentences that so beautifully convey feelings I simply did not have the vocabulary to express.

Discovering the prose of Kaveh Akbar through his debut novel, Martyr!, was a revelation for me. While initially apprehensive about delving into potentially dark subject matter, I found Akbar's lyrical and compassionate writing style to be a refreshing surprise. Despite tackling heavy themes, Akbar infuses his narrative with humour and genuine care for his characters, offering a nuanced portrayal of their struggles.

In Martyr!, we are introduced to Cyrus, a twenty-seven-year-old grappling with recovery from addiction. While the subject matter is undeniably heavy, Akbar's deft touch and warmth in his writing prevent the narrative from descending into despair. Instead, there is a sense of hope and resilience that shines through, reminding readers of the human capacity for redemption and transformation.

Akbar's ability to balance darkness with lightness, to navigate the complexities of pain and healing with grace, left a lasting impression on me. Inspired by his prose, I am eager to explore his poetry collections and delve further into the depth and beauty of his literary voice.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Booker prize winner 2024???? Idk but this is my favourite book I’ve reads in, i don’t even know how long. It ticks all the boxes for me, it's about language, it’s about history, it’s about queerness, it's about poetry. When you read the Dante or Homer (and yeah, I know), they feel not only like narratives, but like repositories of knowledge. Reading 'Martyr!' gave me that same feeling. The way I’m gonna try to sell this to everyone who comes into the store is insane. INSANE. Love.

4.5 stars rounded up

MARTYR! Follows Cyrus, an Iranian-American addict who, after getting sober, becomes obsessed with the idea of dying meaningfully. This was a fantastic book with, I suspect, a narrow audience—I happened to be the perfect fit, and I just didn’t mind about some of the books shortfalls because I was so captivated. But readers should be aware there are significant content warnings for drug use, alcoholism, depression and suicidal ideation.

The prose was the highlight of this novel for me; I was unsurprised to learn the author is a poet. It was utterly gorgeous yet understated and subtle, the deft language all in service of voice. I was drawn into the musings on grief and dying and the art of finding meaning in life as well as death. And Cyrus’s relationship with his (slightly codependent) best friend/occasional lover Zee was a classic queer situationship that I loved watching evolve with acknowledgement.

The half a star is docked for a couple of reasons. The first is that the unusual structure with interludes from the other characters’s POVs and dream sequences presumably from Cyrus’s head, while interesting, often felt disjointed as they waffled around the central thread of the story, sometimes in ways I couldn’t connect to the main narrative (especially the dream sequences). I enjoyed what I was reading, I just didn’t understand why I was reading it. The second is that the very end (like, the last few pages before the coda) had an odd turn into something that might have been speculative? But I’m not sure if it was an extension of the dream sequences, except while Cyrus was awake, or if it was metaphor I was taking too literally, or if it really was supposed to be speculative? But it pulled me out of the story right at the end, so I was going ??? rather than enjoying the denouement.

An intriguing, darkly humorous and well written debut that bring us into a world of weird people, memories and trying to put together pieces and getting to know a person.
FAscinating, loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

wowee. "how do we move through all this beauty without destroying it?" I couldn't have agreed with this more.

Akbar's debut is fantastic. Cyrus is temperamental , you'll both love and hate him - but is that not the point of a martyr? As you follow him through the plot, befriending and reaching for more, your empathy kicks in and then you're latched in for the emotional ride.

It's not what I expected, but I enjoyed the journey.

First of all, the cover seems boring and would fail to encourage me to pick up the book, it was by chance that I clicked onto it and read the blurb.
It was difficult to get into the story and I found myself constantly dnf-ing it but then coming back to it in order to write this review. The book starts out introducing us to Cyrus who is initially unlikeable (to me), he's a recovering alcoholic/drug addict who has this very 'woe is me' sentiment to his life. We learn about his tragic backstory with his mother who died when the US shoots down an Iranian passenger plane while she's on her way to visit her brother and his father who has had to deal with the death of his wife and his immigration to US. We learn more about his mental state through his insomnia which continues through his life and that he imagines conversations between random people in his mind (e.g. Lisa Simpson and his dead mother).
We meet his friends who are a great addition to the story and are supportive to his sobriety and journey as a poet/author.
Ultimately I felt the book dragged on alot, it could have been considerably shorter and I would have enjoyed it alot more.

Outstanding debut novel. Cyrus was born in Iran, but moved to the US with his father as a young boy, after his mother had been killed in an Iranian passenger plane "mistakenly" shot down by American forces when Cyrus was very young. He fancies himself as a poet and is working on a project, the Book of Martyrs, trying to understand what it takes to make a death meaningful with the intention of killing himself in a meaningful way. Of course, the project is ultimately about finding meaning in life. Along the way, he meets an Iranian/American artist who is dying of cancer who has decided to live her last days as an installation in an art museum where people can come and talk to her - their interaction becomes pivotal in Cyrus's journey. A big part of his journey, is finding out the truth about his mother versus the story he's always been fed - to say more would be a massive spoiler.

Booker bait extraordinaire, and I'm here for it! This is an over-ambitious, messy romp, and I love it for being daring, out there, and eccentric. Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet, and his fiction debut tells the story of Iranian-American wannabe-poet Cyrus Shams who figures that to make his life count, he should ponder what a meaningful death constitutes. An orphan who is recovering from what you would have to call multitox addictions, he sets out to craft a book on martyrdom, and Akbar does not only give us snippets from this ouevre, no: In a mosaic of timelines and perspectives, he tells us the story of Cyrus' family members and their deaths.

Cyrus' mother Roya was on her way from Teheran to a PTSD ward in Dubai to visit her brother who had been tasked to patrol the killing fields in the Iran-Iraq war when her plane suddenly crashed: She was one of the passengers of Iran Air Flight 655 that was shot down by the US, which led to huge international criticism until the case was finally settled before International Court of Justice. What drives Cyrus insane is that his mother's death was, in the grand scheme of things, meaningless to the world. After the tragedy, his father Ali took him to Indiana and worked on a poultry farm while simultaneously self-destructing.

Grown-up Cyrus, looking for direction and inspiration, befriends Orkideh, a female Iranian-American artist who suffers from terminal cancer and stages a performance similar to Marina Abramović's "The Artist Is Present": She sits in gallery and talks to anyone who joins the line. We also get insomnia-induced hallucinations feat. Trump, Lisa Simpson, etc. We get bisexual love. Iranian poets. Impressionistic scenes. Witty conversations. Beautiful, surprising metaphors. Akbar goes all in.

And sure: You could also see this as a weakness, that it's over-the-top, too much. But I love the playfulness with which this author addresses one of the oldest themes in literature and philosophy: The search for meaning. How can an Iranian-American ex-addict and aspiring poet with nothing to show for himself but a profound knowledge of grief and anger turn into one of his ideols, Joan of Arc or early Muslim leader Hussain? How to ascribe meaning to the apparently meaningless, how to endure it? The deep humaneness of Cyrus also lies in the silliness of trying to frame tragic life events as martyrdom: This is literature that laughs about literature, about the stories we tell to generate meaning, but not in a condescending, but in an empathic way.

Flawed? Yes. But interestingly so, and also brave and imaginative.

Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel is hugely original. The themes are huge and dealt with both deeply and playfully and so I was not surprised to learn that Akbar is a well respected poet. The characters feel real and the story is surprising and thoughtful. I was unsure of the ending, as in what the writer intended, and confess I had a little search to discover other readers’ thoughts… but the ambiguity remains and just made it more interesting and something to ponder.

Martyr! is the debut novel from Iranian-American poet turned author Kaveh Akbar which has been receiving gushing reviews all over bookstagram with celebrity fans such as Kaia Gerber including it as their book club picks so I was absolutely thrilled to receive an ARC of the book and see what all the fuss was about.

Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with his past - he lost his mother as a baby when her plane was shot down by the US army in a freak accident, his father emigrated from Iran to the US working in a chicken farm and raising his young son alone. Cyrus is a recovery alcoholic and poet who decides to explore the Iranian fascination with Martrys in an attempt to give his life purpose and meaning or lead to his death.

As he seeks out living martyrs, his close friend Zee tells him about a Brooklyn museum installation called Death-Speak,: where a terminally ill Iranian artist Orkideh, is spending her last days in the museum, talking to people which may give him the insight he seeks. They quickly arrange a trip to New York for him to meet with her and see if she can impart the insights that he needs on the meaning of life for his book.

Martyr! becomes a deep exploration of grief, identity, racism, sexuality and Persian culture. The structure of the book is multilayered and it's created as a book within a book - each chapter is prefaced with an excerpt of Cyrus's The Book of Martyrs containing poetry, quotes and insights into the cult of martyrdom in Iran where orphaned children get into better schools, Cyrus's uncle who was an angel of death in the Iran-Iraq War riding a horse at night in a black cloak giving solace to dying soldiers and even that there is a road named after Irish Republican hunger striker Bobby Sands in Tehran. We have some dream segments which contain interactions with the poet Rumi, Lisa Simpson and Trump and then chapters from the different family members who are missing from Cyrus's life - his mother, his father and his maternal uncle who is still living in Iran but suffering from PTSD.


I really wanted to love this book as much as all the other book reviewers but I was left feeling somewhat mixed about it overall - there were paragraphs of the most extraordinarily brilliant writing and then sections where I was left scratching my head - Lisa Simpson segment listed above would be one such example.

Tommy Orange is quoted on the US edition saying that Kaveh Akbar is one of his favourite writers. Ever. I would say if you are a huge fan of Tommy Orange's book There, There then you will absolutely love this book.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book thematically or stylistically, but it won me over. Despite some heavy subject matter, there's a lightness of touch, a gentle whimsy and humour to elements of it, that balances the existentialism and eases the trauma and sadness.

Martyrdom is a concept I struggle with. As someone who believes we come from nothing and return to nothing with just this magical interlude called life to make our mark, I find that martyrdom can lionise death in a way that cheapens life and the intrinsic value of all human life. I wondered where this book was going to go with the concept but I found it fascinating and life-affirming.

Cyrus Shams is an Iranian-American, raised by his father in Indiana, following his mother's tragic death on a commercial airliner that was accidentally shot down by the US military. When we meet Cyrus, he is in recovery from addiction to drugs and alcohol, somewhat depressed and at a crossroads in life following the death of his father. Searching for a purpose to his life and possibly his own death, Cyrus travels to NYC to meet an artist (Orkideh) in person at the Brooklyn Museum who has an installation whereby she is the art: Orkideh is terminally ill and is speaking frankly to visitors of the museum in the lead up to her death.

This book won't be for everyone. It is literary and poetic and intense at times. It's also fragmented in that it has different POVs - chapters about his mother, his father, Cyrus and his best friend Zee, snippets of political commentary on the tragedy that killed his mother, poetry and dream sequences. Some of these work really well, others not so much and there was a point in the novel at which I wondered, where is all of this going? Ultimately, it coalesces into a surprising story that will work for some readers but maybe not for others. It did for me, I found it unexpectedly beautiful. 4/5 stars

*Many thanks to Pan MacMillan and Picador Books for the arc via Netgalley. Martyr! was published on 7 March. As always, this is an honest review.

4.25 stars!

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of Martyr! out in the UK now! 😍 I had high expectations for Cyrus’s story, thanks to @openbookopen’s joyful love for it, and I wasn’t disappointed. Martyr! is one of those all-consuming stories where I fall so deeply for the characters that I’m loath put it down for a minute when I’m reading. This in turn means… I take no notes for reviews 😂 These are the type of books that make you forget you’re reading, you’re so caught up with Cyrus, Ali, Arash, Roya, Zee, their intertwining stories, the glorious messiness of their lives. If I do have one criticism, it’s that I agree with Traci of @thestackspod, that Cyrus’s narrative voice is so strongly defined that it leaks into a few of the other characters’ POVs as well.
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But not all of them, and as well as obviously Cyrus’s sections, his mother Raya’s were my other favourites. Queerness suffuses this novel in so many ways, and I hadn’t been expecting Raya’s devastating storyline. I think one of the biggest indicators of excellent characterisation is when I want to read whole novels based on side characters, which is exactly what I want from Raya.
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Although the content is often bleak - alcoholism, homophobia, terminal illness - there’s such a playful quality to Martyr!, peppered with humour and pop culture references that give an unexpectedly buoyant feel to a book whose main character is obsessed with death.
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One for the reread pile I think, since there’s just so much to unpack, appreciate and rediscover!

I began this novel with high hopes enjoying the quirky humour and the soul searching of our narrator, Cyrus.

However, the more I read, the more I became bogged down with so much stuff the writer is trying to do. Amongst the philosophical exposition, extracts from our protagonist's book and narratives of his dreams featuring conversations between family members and famous people, the plot starts to get a bit lost amongst the brambles.

I ended up finding the enjoyment of the opening chapters waned as the polyphonic voices felt monotonal and each character seeks the same thing, discovering it in very similar ways. I didn't find enough diversity or hook to the plot arcs of any of the characters.

The writer does express nuance well taking us on a journey away from the black and white views of the narrator at the beginning to an increasingly accurate greyness perspective of humanity which was intelligent and thought provoking. However, the blend of this with a fictional novel was just too clunky and his creativity became a device that did not gel into enjoyable storytelling.

This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

Sadly, this one was so not for me. 100 pages in, I didn't really get what the author was trying to achieve here.
It was about Cyrus, an Iranian-American queer guy, it was about his father, about his mother, about growing up actually by himself, about addictions and the difference between wanting to be dead and not wanting to live. Instead of being one novel going from somewhere to somewhere, it was a collection of events happening to any of these people at a point of time but not necessarily in chronological order. It was beyond me.

I decided to stop reading - no need to martyr myself after all.

We seem to be in a time of very strong debut novels. Often these are coming from writers who have already established themselves within the literary world as is the case here with published poet and Iowa City resident Kaveh Akbar.
Main character is Cyrus, a damaged recovering alcoholic student and poet who is contemplating a work on martyrs- believing that death should signify something. This belief is driven by his mother, who, not long after his birth, was a passenger on a plane, which in a momentous cock-up was shot down by American military eviscerating all on board.
The novel records his attempts to cope with life. His upbringing in America with a father unable to live in their Iranian home alongside his grief gives a powerful illustration of the immigrant experience leading to his own hovering on the edge of life and death with addiction issues and explores his relationship with Zee, a man prepared to give love and not expect that much in return. Cyrus’ life changes when he encounters an artist on her own journey towards death which will make her a valuable addition to Cyrus’ own book of martyrs.
If this sounds bleak, there is darkness which runs throughout and there is humour and warmth as the author explores friendship and family and what actually keeps us going on with life. Narrative switches between different characters and third to first person together with extracts from Cyrus’ intended work keeps readers on their toes. I read this quite quickly and was drawn into the work, caring for the characters. I think Kaveh Akbar will make a big impression with this debut producing a book which will be held in high esteem and talked about for a long time to come.
“Martyr!” is published by Picador Books in the UK on March 7th 2024. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

Ultimately a queer love story – or series of interconnecting queer love stories – poet Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel centres on Iranian American Cyrus - although Iran itself isn’t even a distant memory, Cyrus was still a baby when his father moved them to America. After leaving university Cyrus is adrift, grappling with a history of extreme alcohol and substance use, compulsions barely kept at bay through AA. His everyday is Indiana where he attempts to write poetry but makes a living as a “standardized patient” someone whose feigned diseases train prospective doctors to project a suitable “bedside manner.” It’s a role that seems to encapsulate Cyrus’s impression of late capitalist America, an alienating place lacking in substance, a society where even its carers merely “perform” empathy and compassion.

Emotions of grief and anxiety threaten to overwhelm Cyrus, so much so that he decides to embrace them. He plans to die but only after he’s achieved something that gives his death meaning, like the martyrs whose stories obsess him – from Bobby Sands to Joan of Arc. An obsession rooted in the death of his mother on Iran Air Flight 655, a passenger plane shot down by American missiles, killing everyone onboard. For Cyrus his mother’s death’s the very essence of futility: essentially written off as collateral damage by American forces and used as a propaganda tool by Iran’s, even its outcome has no stable meaning. The later loss of his father who died labouring on an industrial chicken farm confirms Cyrus’s impression of life as meaningless and absurd. An absurdity that surfaces in a series of surreal dreams which throw together characters from his life with fictional figures like Lisa Simpson. But then Cyrus hears about Iranian American, performance artist Okideh’s DEATH-SPEAK a piece located at Brooklyn Museum. Okideh is dying from a form of cancer and has chosen to spend her remaining time conversing with museum visitors. Together with his closest friend Zee, Cyrus travels to New York to meet her and what he finds changes everything.

Akbar’s semi-autobiographical novel delves into complex issues of identity, othering, the nature of art, faith versus radical uncertainty, connection versus disconnection. There are numerous shifts in time, place, and in perspective, we hear from characters like Zee, Cyrus’s father, Cyrus’s mother recounting her past in Iran. Stretches of prose jostle with short poems and dreamscapes, more realist episodes are interrupted by elements reflecting aspects of Iranian literature, history and myth. This gives the overall narrative a determinedly-fragmented feel which partly mirrors Cyrus’s fragmented family history and fractured sense of self. But, for all its inventiveness, this is a fairly conventional novel something that becomes increasingly obvious. It’s an accomplished, gripping, well-crafted piece but sometimes that crafted-ness served to highlight Akbar’s background as a creative writing graduate. Some scenes felt heavily workshopped, overly polished in ways that muted their potential force – the concluding variation on a redemption arc was definitely moving but it also tipped towards trite and sentimental.

Rating: 3 .5

Martyr! tells the story of Cyrus, a young Iranian-American whose father emigrated to the US after his mother died in Iran Air Flight 655 (shot down by the US Navy in 1988).

Cyrus is struggling with suicidal thoughts and addiction, he is both an enfant terrible and deeply sensitive, which I did not always find believable. Obsessed with the idea martyrdom and dying for a cause so that his life has meaning, Cyrus decides to visit an Abramowic-like performance art installation in New York, by a dying Iranian artist, which changes everything.

I admired this more than I enjoyed it. There was a bit too much 'author' in it and too many distractions and POVs from the main narrative. Also, towards the end it really turned much too sweet for my taste.

The book is blurbed by Tommy Orange, and in fact the style reminded me a lot of 'There There', including the same mixed feelings of admiration on the one hand and a feeling of relief to have finished as it's all a bit too much.