'I will carry this story, and the people in it, with me for the rest of my life' JOHN GREEN, author of The Fault in Our Stars AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024 A NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST 2024 A BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE FINALIST SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD 2024 NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES , AMAZON, TIME AND SARAH JESSICA PARKER ON BARACK OBAMA'S SUMMER READING LIST 2024 'Smart, dazzling, different . This book is thrilling.' Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake 'Playful, soulful, kaleidoscopic, honest and profoundly moving' Elif Shafak, Observer 'What Akbar pulls off in Martyr! is nothing short of miraculous' The New York Times 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. A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN: The New York Times Time Guardian USA Today Vanity Fair NPR The Atlantic Electric Lit Vox New Yorker * Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24.