The instant New York Times besteller: a young man uncovers the truth behind his mother's death in this transcendental debut that takes the reader from New York to Tehran and heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice.

An instant New York Times Bestseller
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize
Book of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, and The New Yorker
A National Book Award Finalist

A young man uncovers the truth behind his mother's death in this haunting debut that takes you from New York to Tehran.

'Playful, soulful, kaleidoscopic, honest and profoundly moving' - Elif Shafak, author of There Are Rivers in the Sky

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.

'Dazzling' Ann Patchett
'Gorgeous' Tommy Orange
'Radiant' Lauren Groff
'Stunning' John Green
'Miraculous' The New York Times
'Sensational' Daily Mail
'Kaleidoscopic' The Guardian

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