Most people are familiar with the concept of searching for life’s purpose, but Kaveh Akbar’s narrator, Cyrus Shams, is more concerned with searching for his death’s purpose. Cyrus is a twenty-something Iranian American, living in Indiana, drifting around a college town while searching for a reason to live. Cyrus is a recovering addict, he spent years self-medicating with alcohol and drugs, in order to cope with the sudden loss of his mother—who shortly after his birth was shot down on a flight from Iran by the US military—as well as the more recent loss of his father, who raised Cyrus with limited means in this new country.
Martyr! is a novel about a young man who sees the senseless violence that has befallen his family and becomes obsessed with finding a purpose in death. Cyrus was supposed to be on the flight with his mother, and his narrow escape from an early death preoccupies him to no end. He becomes interested in real life religious and political martyrs, whose death served causes larger than themselves and gave thousands of people a cause to rally around. The only temper to Cyrus’ suicidal ideations is his desire for his death to mean something, even as he’s plunged into despair by his purposelessness, he’s searching for a way to die with the dignity of a martyr.
Akbar explores not only Cyrus’ malaise at growing up in small-town Indiana as an Iranian immigrant with a single father, but traces back to Cyrus’ family line in Iran—and their unique relationships with their own mortality. The novel is a sweeping family epic that defies all genre expectations. The novel’s turning point comes when Cyrus decides to travel to New York to meet Orkideh: an artist who is dying of cancer, and is staging an exhibit at the Brooklyn museum in which she spends her last days on earth talking with museum patrons about her life and impending death. Cyrus is exhilarated about the prospect of interviewing a real life martyr, and conceives of a book project in which he can write about these real life martyrs and perhaps include his conversations with Orkideh.
While the novel doesn’t hesitate to plumb the depths of human despair and tragedy, there is a deep sense of humor and a propulsive wit that make Cyrus such a memorable narrator. The novel is extremely entertaining, and has a palpable sense of intrigue and narrative drive. Martyr! ends up in a place that I could not even have conceived at its beginning, and moved me in ways that are difficult to describe. The novel is strongest in its exploration of the character of Cyrus’ mother, as Akbar features her perspective on young motherhood and life in Iran before she gave birth to Cyrus. The conversations between Cyrus and Orkideh also lend the novel a real generosity of spirit and joy that just sparkle on the page.
Martyr! is an unforgettable debut that challenges preconceived notions about grief-writing and the quest for meaning. It is a novel that never shies away from the terror of searching for purpose in an often cruel and callous world, but also leans into the hard-won joys of self discovery and connection. Akbar deftly weaves a narrative about addiction, family, xenophobia, classism, and love into this magnificent narrative thread. Martyr! is an excellent debut novel from a gifted poet and storyteller.