‘Martyr!’ by Kaveh Akbar    (2024) – 323 pages

First note that there is no “translated by” reference on the title page of this novel. ‘Martyrs’ is written in good old English, lively American English. A love of English infuses ‘Martyr!’

“You’re the most American kid I know. You taught Shane how to play Madden, how to torrent Marvel movies. You buy fucking vinyl records. We’re having this conversation in Indiana, not Tehran.”

The above is a description of Cyrus, the main character in ‘Martyr!’. Cyrus is a young man who was born in Iran, but came to the United States when he was very little. His mother Roya was killed when Cyrus was still a baby when the USS Vincennes warship accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger airliner, an Airbus, on July 3, 1988. All 290 people on the plane were killed. The United States never did fully apologize for the incident, but did recompense the families of the victims in 1995. Cyrus’s father Ali moved himself and the baby to Indiana in the United States soon after the accident to work on an industrial chicken farm.

As a young man, Cyrus considers his mother Roya as well as the other 289 people who were killed on the plane as martyrs. He becomes fascinated by other martyrs such as Joan of Arc, Bobby Sands, the man who stood up to the tank in Tiananmen Square, and others. He decides to write his own book of martyrs.

By this time Cyrus’s father Ali has died.

“A wife’s sudden and meaningless death, immigration to a hostile nation, nearly two decades of six-days-a-week manual labor. Ali had earned the right to rest, even in Cyrus’s dreams.”

Cyrus becomes fascinated with this woman artist in New York City, Orkideh, who is dying of cancer and spending her final days in a museum speaking to visitors for an exhibition known as “Death-Speak.” Cyrus views Orkideh as a martyr also, and decides to go to New York City to talk to her.

“What about you though, Cyrus Shams? Orkideh asked. “If you become a martyr, won’t you be hurting the people who love you?”

Cyrus nodded. “Of course,” he said, then after a beat, “but it’s hard to figure out if that hurt would be worse than the hurt of my being here.”

Orkideh shook her head.

“It will be worse,” she said. “I promise. If you let yourself get a little older, you’ll understand that.”

Near the end of ‘Martyr!’ there is this inconceivable, unbelievable, far-fetched story twist in his family story that changes everything. But Cyrus has been so upfront about the rest of his crazy life, his addictions and his sex life, that we almost believe this insane incredible twist, almost. But even if we can’t accept this twist it still makes for a good resolution.

There are a lot of funny scenes in ‘Martyr!’. Kaveh Akbar is a poet also, and there is a lyrical energy to even his prose writing. As a shining example, consider this sentence:

“Love was a room that appeared when you stepped into it. Cyrus understood that now, and stepped.”

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Grade :    A-