Martyr! / Kaveh Akbar.

Summary:

"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."-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9780593537619
ISBN: 0593537610
ISBN: 9780593685778
ISBN: 0593685776
Physical Description: 331 pages ; 25 cm
Edition: First edition
Publisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, [2024]
Copyright: ©2024

Content descriptions

General Note:

Publisher, dates, and paging may vary.

"This is a Borzoi book"

Formatted Contents Note:

Cyrus Shams: Keady University, 2015 -- One -- Two Years Later: Monday: Keady University, 6 Feb 2017 -- Two -- Three -- Four -- Bandar Abbas, Iran: Sunday, 3 July 1988 -- Five -- Cyrus and Ali Shams: Indiana, USA -- Lisa Simpson and Roya Shams -- Six -- Roya and Arash Shirazi: Tehran, 1973 -- Seven -- Tuesday: Cyrus Shams, Zee Novak, and Sad James: Keady University, 7 Feb 2017 -- Eight -- Zee Novak: Keady University, April 2014 -- Nine -- Friday: Cyrus Shams and Orkideh: Brooklyn Museum, Day 1 -- Ten -- Ali Shams -- Friday: Cyrus Shams: Brooklyn, Day 1 -- Eleven -- Arash Shirazi: Alborz Mountains, February 1984 -- Twelve -- Cyrus Shams: Keady University, June 2012 -- Thirteen -- Roya Shams: Tehran, August 1987 -- Fourteen -- Saturday: Cyrus Shams and Orkideh: Brooklyn, Day 2 -- Fifteen -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Beethoven Shams -- Sixteen -- Arash Shirazi: Khuzestan, Iran, May 1985 -- Seventeen -- Sunday: Cyrus Shams and Orkideh: Brooklyn, Day 3 -- Interlude -- Eighteen -- Roya Shams: Tehran, August 1987 -- Nineteen -- Sunday: Cyrus Shams and Zee Novak: Brooklyn, Day 3 -- Twenty -- Sunday: Cyrus Shams and Zee Novak: Brooklyn, Day 3 -- Twenty-One -- Sunday: Cyrus Shams: Brooklyn, Day 3 -- Twenty-Two -- Orkideh and President Invective -- Twenty-Three -- Roya Shams: Tehran, August 1987 -- Twenty-Four -- Monday: Cyrus Shams: Brooklyn, Day 4 -- Twenty-Five -- Ali Shams and Rumi -- Monday: Cyrus Shams: Brooklyn, Day 4 -- Twenty-Six -- Roya Shams: Tehran, August 1987 -- Monday: Cyrus Shams: Brooklyn, Day 4 -- Twenty-Seven -- Twenty-Eight -- Orkideh -- Twenty-Nine -- Orkideh -- Thirty -- Monday: Cyrus Shams and Sang Linh: Brooklyn, Day 4 -- Thirty-One -- Orkideh -- Thirty-Two -- Monday: Cyrus Shams: Brooklyn, Day 4 -- Coda -- Sang Linh: New York, 1997 -- Acknowledgments.