Kaveh Akbar's poetry has been published in places like The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Paris Review — and his work has received a lot of critical acclaim as well as several prestigious awards.
So I had high expectation for Martyr!, his first novel. Three chapters into it, my considerable expectations were a speck in the rearview mirror. After finishing the novel, I couldn't even remember what those expectations had been because I was too busy processing everything Akbar had accomplished in his outstanding debut.
