“Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar: The weight of living and loving
Some books are read and forgotten. And then there are others—like “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar—that stay with you, that pierce deep, open wounds you didn’t know existed, and make you look inward, questioning everything.
Finalist for the National Book Award, “Martyr!” was chosen by The New York Times as one of the best books of the year—and it’s not hard to see why.
What is Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar about?
The protagonist of this story is Cyrus Shams, a young poet and the son of Iranian immigrants, deeply scarred by the death of his mother in a plane crash and the recent loss of his father.
Torn between his family’s past, his ongoing recovery from addiction, and an overwhelming spiritual quest, Cyrus embarks on an inner journey filled with questions we all ask: What does it mean to live with purpose? What is martyrdom? What is true love?
Along the way, he meets a terminally ill Iranian artist who transforms her body into a living installation at the Brooklyn Museum. A story within a story. A powerful metaphor for art as resistance, farewell, and necessity.
Kaveh Akbar: A poetic and radical voice
Kaveh Akbar is a poet first, and it shows. Every page of “Martyr!” is laced with lyricism that moves and surprises. The sentences have texture. The imagery is sharp and beautiful. His language doesn’t merely narrate—it invokes.
As he recently said in an interview, “Writing is a lot like praying”. And there is something of that in this novel: reading it feels like listening to a prayer born of pain—an urgent desire to understand, to heal, and to connect.
Universal themes: identity, addiction, spirituality, and belonging
This is not just a novel about Iran, or about the trauma of migration. Above all, it is a story about how we live with our scars. About how we long to be seen, to be loved, to be forgiven.
“Martyr!” explores faith, guilt, longing, inheritance, grief—but also hope, tenderness, and the possibility of reconciliation with oneself. Akbar creates characters that are broken, imperfect, and real. And that resonates—because, in truth, so are we all.
About the author, Kaveh Akbar
Kaveh Akbar was born in Tehran in 1989 and moved with his family to New Jersey at the age of two. An Iranian-American poet and scholar, he is the author of some of the most celebrated poetry collections in recent years (“Calling a Wolf a Wolf”, “Pilgrim Bell”), with his work featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and Poetry Magazine to critical acclaim.
He also chronicled his journey to sobriety in “Portrait of the Alcoholic”, a powerful account in which poetry became an essential part of his recovery. He is the founder of Divedapper, a platform that has been publishing interviews with leading contemporary poets for over a decade. “Martyr!” is his debut novel—and within its pages, one can trace the many facets of the author’s own life and vision.
“What role does my ego play in all of this? How much of it is just me wanting to be more important than everyone else?” Cyrus
A necessary read
Reading “Martyr!” is like looking into a mirror with your eyes closed: you don’t always know what you’ll find, but once you do, you can’t see yourself the same way again. It’s a novel that makes you feel, reflect, and change.
Highly recommended.
(*) Images courtesy of Blackie Books.
