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Martyr!

The Instant New York Times Bestseller

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Martyr!

Written by: Kaveh Akbar
Narrated by: Arian Moayed
Free with 30-day trial

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Buy Now for ₹323.00

Buy Now for ₹323.00

About this listen

Discover the life-affirming debut novel from acclaimed poet Kaveh Akbar: a love letter to the world and our search for meaning - in faith, art, ourselves and those we care for.

'Dazzling' Ann Patchett
‘Profoundly moving' Elif Shafak
‘Gorgeous’ Tommy Orange
‘Radiant’ Lauren Groff
‘Stunning’ John Green
‘Miraculous' The New York Times
‘Sensational’ Daily Mail
‘Kaleidoscopic’ The Guardian

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 Observer, The New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and shorlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize for Fiction

 City Life Friendship Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Urban World Literature

Critic Reviews

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)
Smart, dazzling, different... a novel of depth and complexity, tragedy and humour . . . This book is thrilling. There's no other word for it. It's like watching the novel itself be reinvented (Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake)
Playful, soulful, kaleidoscopic, honest and profoundly moving. It is also wholly original, and the writing is brilliant, full of chutzpah and heart (Elif Shafak, author of The Island of Missing Trees)
Kaveh Akbar is a radiant soul, a poet so agile and largehearted it comes as no surprise that his first leap into fiction is elegant, dizzying, playful. (Lauren Groff, author of The Matrix)
In Cyrus, 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 . . . what Akbar pulls off in Martyr! is nothing short of miraculous.
Kaveh Akbar renders the full spectrum of life, and death, with great beauty and care (Raven Leilani, author of Luster)
An absolute jewel of a novel. A diamond. I haven’t loved a book this much in years. Kaveh’s writing is so thoroughly powerful and gorgeous you can feel it from where dreams come . . . This book does everything. (Tommy Orange, author of There, There)
Martyr! is an astounding debut . . . It feels like holding magic in your hands (Aimee Walsh, The Irish Times)
It's so, so incredible (Kaia Gerber)
I haven't stopped thinking about it. Sensational.
A kaleidoscopic debut . . . a novel that comes at you from every conceivable direction
Martyr! will stay in my soul for good—a fever dream, a reckoning, a heartbreak, a shattering and mending, a delight—its double-helix of dreams and conversation now part of my own DNA (Leslie Jamison, author of The Empathy Exams)
A brilliant debut... simultaneously funny and piercing... Akbar writes beautifully
Akbar is a black-belt storyteller, and MARTYR! is a page-turner I couldn’t put down. Buy this book! (Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club)
Akbar’s debut is full of love, fury, humour and wisdom. Protagonist Cyrus Shams . . . is coming straight for your heart
I laughed out loud
I can’t remember the last time a book made me feel like this. Martyr! is simply extraordinary. Kaveh Akbar has written a novel that will stay with me forever. (Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed)
Brilliant
Reading Martyr! is a delight
All stars
Most relevant
Started off really great but eventually loses the plot and doesn’t live up to its potential. Explores the theme of living a meaningful life, but just didn’t land for me. Narration is good.

Interesting story but loses the plot a little

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“You fill the hollow with God. And everything else is a distraction.”

I cried for Cyrus, for Orkideh, for Ali, for Firdosi, for Zee, for Shang.
I cried for every second I’ve taken for granted.
I cried for all the martyrs.

I just cried.

What a hauntingly beautiful book.

A Poet’s Novel

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