Books Martyr! Novel by Kaveh Akbar

"Martyr!" by Kaveh Akbar is a 2024 debut novel that tells the story of Cyrus Shams, a troubled Iranian-American poet and recovering alcoholic struggling to find meaning in his life and death. Haunted by the death of his mother—who was a passenger on Iran Air Flight 655, shot down by US forces—and the quiet desperation of his immigrant father, Cyrus is obsessed with the idea of martyrdom and seeks to write a book about martyrs, both historical and personal, as a way to give his life significance128.

The novel interweaves multiple perspectives and timelines, exploring Cyrus’s fractured family history, including his war veteran uncle and the mysterious artist Orkideh, whose life and death become entwined with Cyrus’s journey. Orkideh stages a dying-performance art exhibit called “DEATH-SPEAK” in Brooklyn, which Cyrus visits on a quest to understand mortality and purpose567.

Stylistically, Martyr! blends intense monologues, poetic language, and shifting narratives, capturing Cyrus’s internal struggles with addiction, cultural identity, grief, and the search for belonging in a diasporic context38. The novel delves deeply into themes of legacy, trauma, the meaning of death, and the painful complexity of living between two worlds46.

Critics have described it as a daring, eccentric, and thought-provoking work that oscillates between the gravely serious and the absurd, with a strong, raw emotional core centered on Cyrus’s quest to live and die meaningfully158.

In summary, Martyr! is a richly textured, ambitious exploration of an immigrant artist’s search for purpose amid trauma and addiction, set against the broader backdrop of Iranian-American history and the obsession with martyrdom as a symbol of meaningful existence.

1 BOOK