AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024
A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2024
A BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE FINALIST
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD 2024
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, AMAZON, TIME AND SARAH JESSICA PARKER
ON BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER READING LIST 2024

'Smart, dazzling, different . . . This book is thrilling.'
Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake

'Playful, soulful, kaleidoscopic, honest and profoundly moving'
Elif Shafak, Observer

'What Akbar pulls off in Martyr! is nothing short of miraculous'
The New York Times

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 New York Times
Time
Guardian
USA Today
Vanity Fair
NPR
The Atlantic
Electric Lit
Vox
New Yorker

* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24