A Book of the Year in The Observer, The New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, and shorlisted for the Waterstones Debut Prize for Fiction

‘Dazzling’ Ann Patchett
‘Profoundly moving’ Elif Shafak
‘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, funny, and all-consuming, Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr! is a masterpiece.

_{* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24}

‘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

‘Smart, dazzling, different . . . This book is thrilling. It’s like watching the novel itself be reinvented’ – Ann Patchett, author of Tom Lake

‘This book vibrates with love of life, beauty and language. I’m in awe…’ – Natalie Portman

Cyrus Shams is lost.

Ever since his mother’s plane was senselessly shot down over the Persian Gulf when he was just a baby, Cyrus has been grappling with her death. Now, newly sober, he is set to learn the truth of her life.

When an encounter with a dying artist leads Cyrus towards the mysteries of his past – an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as an Angel of Death, a haunting work of art by an exiled painter – he finds himself once again caught up in the story of his mother, who may not have been who or what she seemed. As Cyrus searches for meaning in the scattered clues of his life, a final revelation transforms everything he thought he knew.

Electrifying, funny, wholly original, and profound, Martyr! heralds the arrival of a blazing and essential new voice in contemporary fiction.

_{* Martyr! was an instant New York Times bestseller w/c 27/1/24}

‘An amazing collection of spiritual verse from many cultures and periods … There cannot be any other anthology that ranges so widely, and anyone concerned with either poetry or spirituality will want to own a copy.’ – John Barton

An inspiring new selection of poems exploring faith and the divine, featuring poets from across the world, from antiquity to the present

Poets have always looked to the skies for inspiration, and have written as a way of getting closer to the power and beauty they sense in nature, in each other and in the cosmos. This anthology is a holistic and global survey of a lyric conversation about the divine, one which has been ongoing for millennia.

Beginning with the earliest attributable author in all of human literature, the twenty-third century BC Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna, and taking in a constellation of voices – from King David to Lao Tzu, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to the Malian Epic of Sundiata – this selection presents a number of canonical voices like Blake, Dickinson and Tagore, alongside lesser-anthologized diverse voices going up to the present day, that showcase the breathtaking multiplicity of ways humanity has responded to the divine across place and time.

These poets’ voices commune between millenia, offering readers a chance to experience for themselves the vast and powerful interconnectedness of these incantations orbiting the most elemental of all subjects – our spirit.