Martyr by Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning—in faith, art, ourselves, others—in which a newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a search that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum.

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 Tehran 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.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

Genre - Contemporary Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 23, 2024

My Thoughts

Cyrus is an interesting character but it is the chapters that focus on Roya, his mother, that I find the most engaging. Dissatisfied with marriage, with motherhood, she stumbles into a friendship that opens her up to other horizons, to possibilities. The chapters that focus on Arash, Roya's brother, fall flat for me though and in the end I don't think it would change the book if they were removed altogether.

This novel celebrates language while also taking a deep look into human darkness. I It explores addiction, grief, guilt, sexuality, racism, martyrdom, biculturalism, the compulsion to create something that matters, and our endless quest for purpose in a world that can often be cruel and uncaring. I liked the book but at times it felt long to me. For that reason, I give this one 4 stars.