Martyr! (National Book Award Finalist): A Novel

This book was magical to experience. I already know I will be reading it again and again. Ive recommended it to countless people. So beautifully written, such a unique and moving story, theres just nothing else like it. Thank you for writing this!!!!

3.5-stars rounded up to 4-stars. This book was a mixed bag for me. There were a number of things which, ordinarily, would bring my rating way down: the scattershot writing style, the use of highly detailed dreams (no one has these), and using irrelevant characters to help tell the story (e.g., Lisa Simpson, Abdul-Jabbar, Rumi). For me these are unnecessary literary affectations. I'm also not a fan of serious drug-users/drinkers as protagonists. But the story *was* interesting. Some sections were very funny. I loved Cyrus's uncle, Arash, and his tragic story. And the part of the story with Orkideh and Cyrus was original and compelling. Recommended. (Despite the book's cutesy parts.) This was also my first audio book. The narrator - Arian Moayed - did an incredible job. Five big stars for him. But the times I'm in a situation where I can listen to a narrator *and* be intellectually engaged are few. (When is that... driving?, planes?, exercising?) So audio books are a likely dead end for me.

Over the course of a single page, Martry! covered dead alcoholic dads (trying their “best”), name dropped Jorge Luis Borges and Nick Cave, and mentioned cultists. Obviously, I was sold. The relationships in this book are complicated and moving. They are between people, sure, but also between grief and addiction, loss and freedom, reality and perception. I’ve felt some part of everything here and I thought it was handled with a lot of compassion and anger and hope and for me, that was a perfect combination. Akbar gives us his own version of happy ever after here, precarious and real. Hard-earned I love you’s. Messy and uncertain intimacy. Unsaid but omnipresent goodbyes. I can’t stop doing the duality thing. It’s just so part of it. Also, so many heavy truths about parenting and survival. Very brief but major spoilers below: I love the evolution of Roya/Orkideh and the interactions through DEATH SPEAK that bring Cyrus to the truth. Holy hell. So good. So many layers. I love the relationship with Cyrus and Zee and their slow realness. It was so touching and sharp and soft. We just all need to remember what holds us here, sometimes (often, always). Definitely read it. MM for the main relationship, but fluid throughout/closed door (mostly) when there’s sex mentioned, but this is more of an allusion to/heart-read throughout

The novel itself is definitely ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Don’t miss reading this hilarious, moving wonder. But the hardback I ordered mysteriously— though it arrived well-packed in an unharmed Amazon box—had water damage to the top front cover and the dust jacket. Had to have happened in the warehouse. Sad that they shipped it anyway. Hence the lower overall rating here.

I will dispense with describing the plot of Martyr! - that's been done enough in other reviews and the novel's publicity communications. To get directly to its net effect... Overall, I found this work very enjoyable, having begun it with no particular expectations and little knowledge of the storyline. HOWEVER, I consumed it as an AUDIOBOOK. Throughout its 10+ hours I wondered if it would be as compelling if I were reading it - indeed, I suspected that certain parts might be outright boring in script form. From what I am seeing in other reviews, I believe those wonderings are borne out. The vocal narration was outstanding. Crucially, it took care of what appears to be the most frequent criticism of the book's multiple POV structure: that, in script, all the characters sounded alike. Narrator Arian Moyayed did a remarkable job of bringing the various players to life and imparting unique personalities/voices to each. To those who rated Martyr! one or two stars, I'd say, well, horses for courses. To the three star raters, I'd say you should have listened to the audio - it might have hit you as a four, or maybe even five. As for other critique points...One, be alerted that Martyr! does not really have a "plot" as such. Like much literary fiction, it is character driven and philosophical point driven. Two, in a couple instances, the "point" being made has little or nothing to do with what is otherwise happening with the main character's life - and it gets a bit soap-boxy. Three, readers/listeners might detect an interesting compare/contrast between the narrative of this protagonist's substance addiction experiences and those of the protagonist in Barabara Kingsolver's "Demon Copperhead". Lastly, I've seen that some folks expected more humor based on the book's promotion; I saw none of that promotion so I didn't expect it, and for me the amount of humor was just right. As with all books, this one has its flaws. But if you are a literary fiction fan this is a very good book. I would speculatively rate it a solid three-stars in its written form, and highly recommend it in audio.

It's an interesting and inventive read about a recovering alcoholic/addict who moved to the Midwest from Iran as a child following a family trauma. It follows the emerging poet who becomes fascinated with the idea of Martyrs and martyrdom, which draws him to a dying painter who’s made her dying a type of performance art. The structure of the telling of this story shifts perspectives and time lines that keeps the reader on their toes. It’s funny and heartfelt and has some truly interesting ideas and perceptions that tickle that part of the reader’s brain which needs a special talent to reach.

“I want to be worthy of the great terror my existence inspires.” This book left me absolutely breathless. 72 hours after finishing it, I’m still suffering from the hangover of how much I loved it. Martyr! follows Cyrus, a yet-to-be-discovered Iranian American poet, as he tries to make sense of his life and his grief. His mother is dead, his father is dead, he’s stuck in a job as a medical actor, and now that he’s sober, he can’t use substances to take the edge off. He’s starting to wonder whether joy is even real anymore when he’s struck by his next great idea: he’ll write a book about martyrs. As he begins searching the world for examples, a friend tells him about a museum exhibit: an Iranian woman, dying of cancer, spending her last days in the museum, talking to people. And thus begins Cyrus’s search for meaning. Being familiar with Akbar’s poetry, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I cracked this book open. The goosebumps that peppered my arms and tears that crawled down my face while I was reading would suggest otherwise. Akbar’s lyricism effortlessly echoes through every line of this book. Martyr! illustrates the power and the insufficiency of language, the way it can both elucidate and obscure. Beyond the prose, Akbar’s fiction debut tackles a wide range of topics: grief, racism, sexuality, family dynamics, Persian culture, gender roles. Martyr!’s characters leap off the page as Akbar employs them to explore these diverse subjects. With alternating POVs between Cyrus, his mother, his father, and his uncle, this book becomes both a captivating character study and a heart-rending family saga. This is another must-read recommendation for my diverse lit-fic lovers! Thank you, Kaveh, for such beautiful polysexual and sapphic representation and for everything I learned about Persian culture. I’m already planning to reread Martyr! later this year 🌻 Run, don’t walk, to pick up a copy of this amazing new book!

I enjoyed the many prose of the book. The characters were very interesting in how they viewed the world around them.

Livro incrível!!

What an amazing paperback! The spine is very flexible and its super comfortable to hold, as for the contents of the book im still yet to read it!

Interesting, different, beautifully written

I couldn’t finish this book. Reading it became increasingly frustrating because it initially seemed to be the story of Cyrus, a man trying to give meaning to his life. But then we get entire chapters from the point of view of his dead mother, his dead father, and his uncle, perspectives Cyrus himself has no access to. At that point, I understood that the novel must have another purpose and that I was supposed to read it in a different way. But I could no longer see what that purpose was or where the author wanted to take me. Without that sense of narrative direction, I simply couldn’t get into the book anymore, so I stopped partway through.

This book is full of amazing quotes! It is hogging up space my quote diary. 10/10