Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar is a story about a young man named Cyrus Shams who is trying to find meaning in his life. Cyrus is the son of Iranian immigrants, and he has had a really hard life. His mom died in a plane crash in Iran, and his dad worked in a chicken factory in America. Cyrus feels lost because of all the sadness and violence in his family’s past.

Cyrus is a poet, but he also struggles with drinking and taking drugs. He becomes really interested in martyrs people who die for something they believe in and starts looking into his own family’s history. Along the way, he learns about his brave uncle who dressed as an angel during a war and a secret about his mom that he finds in a painting at a museum in Brooklyn.