Martyr!
The Instant New York Times Bestseller
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4,0 • 1 note
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
‘I will carry this story, and the people in it, with me for the rest of my life'
JOHN GREEN, author of The Fault in Our Stars
Named a best book of 2024 by THE NEW YORK TIMES, Amazon, CBS and TIME
'This book vibrates with love of life, beauty and language. I'm in awe'
NATALIE PORTMAN
'Smart, dazzling, different . . . This book is thrilling.'
ANN PATCHETT, author of Tom Lake
'I haven't stopped thinking about it. Sensational.'
DAILY MAIL
'Nothing short of miraculous'
JUNOT DIAZ, New York Times
'A kaleidoscopic debut'
GUARDIAN
'Elegant, dizzying, playful.'
LAUREN GROFF, author of Matrix
'Martyr! is an astounding debut'
THE IRISH TIMES
'Brilliant'
LA TIMES
‘Reading Martyr! Is a delight’
THE WASHINGTON POST
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?
* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Poet Akbar (Calling a Wolf a Wolf) explores the allure of martyrdom in this electrifying story of a Midwestern poet struggling with addiction and grief. Cyrus Shams, an orphaned son of Iranian immigrants, is fixated on finding meaning in the deaths of his parents—his mother in a plane that was accidentally shot down by the U.S. Navy over the Persian Gulf, his father from a stroke. His obsession strains his relationships, particularly with his closest friend and roommate Zee Novak, as does his heavy drinking and drug use. Immersed in the study of martyrs throughout history, Cyrus finds focus for his project when he meets Orkideh, an older painter foregoing treatment for her terminal breast cancer, and he realizes he has an opportunity to interview a living martyr. More details would spoil the plot, which thickens when connections are revealed between Cyrus and Orkideh as well as secrets about Cyrus's family history that inform his conflicted feelings about pursuing a queer romance with Zee. Akbar deploys a range of styles with equal flair, from funny wordplay ("Maybe it was that Cyrus had done the right drugs in the wrong order, or the wrong drugs in the right order") to incisive lyricism ("An alphabet, like a life, is a finite set of shapes"). This wondrous novel will linger in readers' minds long after the final page.
