Martyr!

A young man uncovers the truth behind his mother’s death in this haunting debut that takes you from New York to Tehran. 'Profoundly moving ' Elif Shafak 'Dazzling' Ann Patchett ‘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 and funny, Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is an all-consuming debut. An instant New York Times Bestseller Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize Book of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, and The New Yorker A National Book Award Finalist * Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24

A young man uncovers the truth behind his mother’s death in this haunting debut that takes you from New York to Tehran. 'Profoundly moving ' Elif Shafak 'Dazzling' Ann Patchett ‘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 and funny, Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is an all-consuming debut. An instant New York Times Bestseller Shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize Book of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, and The New Yorker A National Book Award Finalist * Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24

'Does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times The first book in the iconic John Shakespeare series, beloved by thousands of readers, from true master of historical fiction, Rory Clements. ------------------------------------------------------- 'Sixteenth-century London comes alive in all its tawdriness' Daily Mail 'Beautifully done . . . alive and tremendously engrossing' Daily Telegraph 'Plot and dialogue that hums with Elizabethan slang, profanity and wit' The Times 'Enjoyable, bloody and brutish' Guardian ------------------------------------------------------- England, 1587. Mary, Queen of Scots is to be executed. Spain gathers their fleet in vengeance . . . War is coming. Tensions in Elizabeth I 's government are at breaking point. At the eye of the storm is John Shakespeare , chief intelligencer in the secret service of Sir Francis Walsingham . When an intercept reveals a plot to assassinate Francis Drake , Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. The future of the nation rests on Drake's safety. But London is nothing but one large powder keg. And murder and mutilation of a high-born young woman at a printing house, a case which Shakespeare is forced to investigate, could be the spark that sets everything ablaze. . . From the splendour and intrigue of the royal court, to the sleek warships of Her Majesty's Navy and the teeming brothels of Southwark, Shakespeare soon learns that nothing is as it seems. ------------------------------------------------------- Readers adore Martyr and the John Shakespeare series . . . 'If you love C.J. Sansom, you'll love this' 'You can feel, smell, see and hear the dangerous times of Tudor England' 'An absolutely delightful Elizabethan mystery' 'If you enjoy S.J. Parris, you need to try this' 'Rory Clements has struck gold with John Shakespeare'

'Does for Elizabeth's reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII's' Sunday Times The first book in the iconic John Shakespeare series, beloved by thousands of readers, from true master of historical fiction, Rory Clements. ------------------------------------------------------- 'Sixteenth-century London comes alive in all its tawdriness' Daily Mail 'Beautifully done . . . alive and tremendously engrossing' Daily Telegraph 'Plot and dialogue that hums with Elizabethan slang, profanity and wit' The Times 'Enjoyable, bloody and brutish' Guardian ------------------------------------------------------- England, 1587. Mary, Queen of Scots is to be executed. Spain gathers their fleet in vengeance . . . War is coming. Tensions in Elizabeth I 's government are at breaking point. At the eye of the storm is John Shakespeare , chief intelligencer in the secret service of Sir Francis Walsingham . When an intercept reveals a plot to assassinate Francis Drake , Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. The future of the nation rests on Drake's safety. But London is nothing but one large powder keg. And murder and mutilation of a high-born young woman at a printing house, a case which Shakespeare is forced to investigate, could be the spark that sets everything ablaze. . . From the splendour and intrigue of the royal court, to the sleek warships of Her Majesty's Navy and the teeming brothels of Southwark, Shakespeare soon learns that nothing is as it seems. ------------------------------------------------------- Readers adore Martyr and the John Shakespeare series . . . 'If you love C.J. Sansom, you'll love this' 'You can feel, smell, see and hear the dangerous times of Tudor England' 'An absolutely delightful Elizabethan mystery' 'If you enjoy S.J. Parris, you need to try this' 'Rory Clements has struck gold with John Shakespeare'

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK - A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original , Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction. "Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite writers. Ever." --Tommy Orange, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of There There "The best novel you'll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, homesickness." --Lauren Groff, best-selling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother's plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father's life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past--toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed. Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning--in faith, art, ourselves, others.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK - A newly sober, orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, guided by the voices of artists, poets, and kings, embarks on a remarkable search for a family secret that leads him to a terminally ill painter living out her final days in the Brooklyn Museum. Electrifying, funny, and wholly original , Martyr! heralds the arrival of an essential new voice in contemporary fiction. "Kaveh Akbar is one of my favorite writers. Ever." --Tommy Orange, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of There There "The best novel you'll ever read about the joy of language, addiction, displacement, martyrdom, belonging, homesickness." --Lauren Groff, best-selling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother's plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father's life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past--toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed. Kaveh Akbar's Martyr! is a paean to how we spend our lives seeking meaning--in faith, art, ourselves, others.