A New York Times bestseller[1] and one of the paper's Best Books of the Year So Far,[2] it was a finalist for the 2024 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize.

[3] The novel follows Cyrus, a queer Iranian American dealing with depression and addiction and unable to cope with the death of his parents.

"[11] Writing in The New York Times Book Review, Junot Díaz called it "incandescent" and its main character Cyrus Shams "an indelible protagonist, haunted, searching, utterly magnetic.

"[12] At The New York Review of Books, Francine Prose noted:[13] There’s something immensely appealing about a meticulously written novel whose characters (Cyrus isn’t the only one) are busily searching for meaning.

And it’s cheering to see a first-time (or anytime) novelist go for the heavy stuff—family, death, love, addiction, art, history, poetry, redemption, sex, friendship, US-Iranian relations, God—and manage to make it engrossing, imaginative, and funny.In September 2024 Martyr!