Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
Martyr!, poet Kaveh Akbar’s remarkable debut novel, is the kind of book that forever alters your brain chemistry. It stars Cyrus, a queer Iranian American poet who grew up in the shadow of his mother’s death from a senseless act of violence. Cyrus has grown obsessed with the concept of martyrdom and what it means to die with purpose. As he works on a manuscript about martyrs, he encounters an Iranian artist with a terminal cancer diagnosis whose insights reshape Cyrus’s perspective. Although the story deals with heavy topics like death, grief, and war, Akbar writes with a sense of playfulness and whimsy that shines a warm light on the darkest corners of the human psyche. It’s a phenomenal first novel from an author we’re sure to still be talking about at the end of the century. —Susie Dumond