K
Kaveh Akbar
Iranian-American poet and scholar
Martyr!
Synopsis
Martyr! is Kaveh Akbar's debut novel, following Cyrus Shams, a queer, newly sober Iranian-American poet in his twenties who has spent years theorizing about death without meaning. Cyrus's mother, Roya, was killed as a passenger on Iran Air Flight 655, shot down by a U.S. Navy warship in 1988; his father, Ali, brought him to rural Indiana as a boy and worked himself into an early grave. Haunted by the randomness of his mother's death and his own history of addiction, Cyrus becomes fixated on martyrs -- people whose deaths carried purpose -- and sets out to write a book about them.
When his roommate Zee tells him about Orkideh, a dying Iranian artist staging a controversial performance piece at the Brooklyn Museum, Cyrus travels to New York to see her. Their conversations, along with the voice of Cyrus's uncle Arash and a chorus of dream visions and imagined encounters with poets and martyrs, pull the novel between rural Indiana and Brooklyn, past and present, as Cyrus closes in on a revelation that will change how he understands his mother, his family, and his own search for meaning.
Blending autofiction, prose poetry, and dark comedy, Martyr! was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction.
Genres
Characters
Cyrus ShamsProtagonist
A newly sober Iranian-American poet obsessed with martyrdom, researching a book about people whose deaths carried meaning.
Ali ShamsSupporting
Cyrus's father, an Iranian immigrant farm worker who raised him in rural Indiana and died when Cyrus reached adulthood.
ZeeSupporting
Cyrus's roommate, closest friend, and sometime romantic partner, who accompanies him to New York.
ArashSupporting
Cyrus's uncle, an Iran-Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD who served as a battlefield 'angel of death.'
Andrew Carnegie Medal (2025)Audie Award (2025)Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize (2024)Dayton Literary Peace Prize (2025)Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction (2025)Dublin Literary Award (2025)Goodreads Choice Award (2024)Libby Award (2025)National Book Award Finalist (2024)Rosenthal Family Foundation Award (2025)
Frequently asked questions
Is this book based on a true story?
While the novel is inspired by the real-life 1988 tragedy of Iran Air Flight 655, the characters and their specific journeys are fictional. The author has noted that he intentionally navigated around biographical symmetries rather than writing an autobiographical account.
How is the story structured?
The narrative is non-linear and shifts between multiple perspectives, including those of the protagonist's family members and other figures. It also incorporates surreal dream sequences and experimental elements, such as imagined conversations with historical or pop-culture icons.
Does this book connect to the author's poetry collections?
The protagonist's struggles with addiction and identity serve as a thematic companion to the author's earlier poetry collections, particularly Calling a Wolf a Wolf. However, the novel functions as a standalone work of fiction.
Has Martyr! won any awards?
Yes. Martyr! won the 2025 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction and the 2025 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. It was also a finalist for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction and the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, and it was a New York Times bestseller and one of the paper's 10 Best Books of the Year.
