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Martyr!

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Martyr!

By: Kaveh Akbar
Narrated by: Arian Moayed
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About this listen

Discover the life-affirming debut novel from acclaimed poet Kaveh Akbar: a love letter to the world and our search for meaning - in faith, art, ourselves and those we care for.

'Dazzling' Ann Patchett
‘Profoundly moving' Elif Shafak
‘Gorgeous’ Tommy Orange
‘Radiant’ Lauren Groff
‘Stunning’ John Green
‘Miraculous' The New York Times
‘Sensational’ Daily Mail
‘Kaleidoscopic’ The Guardian

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 Observer, The New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and shorlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize for Fiction

©2024 Kaveh Akbar (P)2024 Macmillan Publishers International Limited Best of 2024 Friendship Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance World Literature Funny
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One of the best books I’ve read. I loved it all the way through and there were lines / passages that caught my breath or just stopped me in my tracks for a second and thought Wow, yeah. I loved reading the MC’s journey and the way it was peppered with the journey’s of those closest to him (or not). There were a few overly fantastical elements I wouldn’t typically enjoy but the rest of the book was so wonderful, they won’t be what I remember. And I will remember this book. I hope, for a very long time.

Breathtakingly beautiful

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"Love is a room that opens when you step into it"

Cyrus has a plan to write a book about martyrs, and he is inspired by an artist Orchida who is creating a live artwork about her own impending death, and travels to meet her. Having lost his own parents in difficult circumstances and while recovering from substance addiction, he seeks the answers to a life he feels has had little purpose, looking to find meaning in the end of life instead .

Told through his own past, his family 's past and through dreams, Akbar deftly weaves stories within stories about art and death. Akbar leads Cyrus on a pilgrimage of experience that tackles loss, identity and most of all he offers hope even in times of despair.

Death is a door to explore hope

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The best audiobook I’ve ever listened to.. wowowow it’s going to take me a while to stop thinking about this. Incredible book and incredible performance from Arian. Highly recommend 🫶🏻

Incredible

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This is my first review, I keep forgetting to write them but this book moved me so much I had to do it. Just perfect. I will be buying the paper book as well so many things I need to see again and again and again

Profound and warm

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l loved everything about it - thanks Anthony Jeselnik for the recommendation, would never have picked it but it was as good as he said it was

Beautiful poetic language

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Beautifully written, almost poetic. Leaves a feeling that lingers long after the book finishes.

Astounding

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This book is a masterpiece. it's not a book, it's a painting. the narrator was absolutely perfect too.

Exceptional

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a chicken farm in indiana advertising for jobs in Iran at the height of bad blood between the countries? why? and how would this be allowed by the regime? and how would

major plot hole

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I am giving up, I’m a third of the way through and I am still waiting to be engaged by either the story or the characters. Nothing is inducing me to carry on unfortunately, I am not interested in finding out where this is going. So sorry, this is the first Audible story I have not eagerly switched on whenever I can.

When does it become interesting?

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I didn't find the story very engaging. We learn a lot about the characters' feelings but not a lot actually happens, apart from one mystery which has a silly solution in my opinion.

If you gathered together all the non-fiction parts of the book and made it an article about martyrdom and Iran, that would be great. Those parts. and a couple of the wacky dream sequences were the bits I liked.

The narration was good, maybe a bit slow. this was the first Audible book where II needed to listen on a faster speed

Not very engaging but with some interesting facts

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