
Martyr! is the debut novel by Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar and was one of last year’s buzzier books. I’m always curious about poets’ novels, intrigued by how their command of language brings a story to life. (One debut novel I had the pleasure of reading in advance and highly recommend is Seán Hewitt’s Open, Heaven, coming out in 2025—keep an eye out for it!)
In Akbar’s novel, we meet Cyrus Shams, a man in his late twenties, worn down by life far beyond his years. The son of an Iranian immigrant, Cyrus lost his mother in the infamous 1988 air disaster when a U.S. missile cruiser mistakenly shot down an Iranian passenger plane. Stricken with grief, his father fled Iran with his infant son, dedicating the rest of his life to raising him—until his sudden death, just as Cyrus was about to graduate college.
Now orphaned and adrift, Cyrus grapples with the meaninglessness of his parents’ deaths, particularly his mother’s. Struggling with substance abuse and fragile mental health, he contemplates ending his life but is haunted by the idea of vanishing without leaving a trace, just as his parents did. This fear leads to an obsession with martyrdom. Cyrus dreams of writing a book on the subject and even considers becoming a martyr himself.
“It’s not an Islam thing. It’s about secular, pacifist martyrs. People who gave their lives to something larger than themselves.”
When he learns about Orkideh, an Iranian artist dying of cancer and exhibiting herself à la Abramović in a Brooklyn gallery, Cyrus travels to New York to meet her. Over a series of brief, intense encounters—cut short by impatient gallery visitors eager for their own scraps of wisdom—the two form a tender yet charged connection. Their relationship forces Cyrus to confront his struggles and ultimately reveals a truth far greater than what he originally set out to find.
The present-day narrative alternates with chapters told from other perspectives and moments in time. We witness his mother Roya’s childhood in Iran alongside her brother Arash, now a PTSD-stricken veteran. We see Cyrus through the eyes of his roommate-turned-lover Zee and delve into his surreal dreams, in which he debated life and death with figures like Lisa Simpson and Donald Trump. These chapters are peppered with fragments of poetry and excerpts from Cyrus’ unfinished book. While these elements are skilfully woven together, I sometimes questioned the purpose of the dream sequences in particular. They add to the sense that this novel is carefully constructed, I guess it might be too neat at times, for my liking at least. Made up of recognisable plot devices leading up to a resolution that is meant to be a plot twist but which I anticipated quite early on (and then put off as too obvious).
Akbar’s prose is undeniably rich, packed with similes and vivid turns of phrase—occasionally overdone, but reflective of his poetic roots. Like many debut novels, this one suffers from a lack of subtlety. It tackles heavy themes—grief, migration, racism, PTSD, alcoholism, depression—arguably too many. A narrower focus might have made for a more compelling read, especially given Cyrus’ supposed obsession with martyrdom, which felt underexplored. If a novel hinges on such a fixation, I want to plunge into it alongside the protagonist, but that depth was missing here.
Kaveh Akbar is undoubtedly talented, with a striking command of language and certainly has potential as a novelist. Martyr! is a noteworthy debut, though it didn’t leave me breathless or linger in my thoughts once I set it down. My experience reading it reminded me of my feelings toward Orbital (which I recently wrote about): moments of brilliance mixed with moments that left me underwhelmed. An enjoyable read, but not an unforgettable one.
Published by Picador, 2024
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