Explore the real-world places that appear in Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Brooklyn Museum, Cyrus's Brooklyn Apartment, Bushwick Collective Street Art, Prospect Park, Recovery Meeting Rooms and 6 more.
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn — Art, mortality, and Orkideh's exhibit
Art and martyrdom drive Cyrus Shams's search. The dying artist Orkideh sits in a museum atrium as part of a living exhibit, letting strangers talk to her about death. Cyrus, a newly sober poet, meets her there, and the encounter pulls him toward the secrets of his mother Roya's life and death. The museum stands in for the book's art-world New York, where his quest takes shape.
The Brooklyn Museum opened in 1897 and is housed in a Beaux-Arts building designed by McKim, Mead & White. It is one of the largest art museums in the United States, with a collection of over 1.5 million objects.
The museum is open to the public with a wide range of exhibits, including a major Egyptian collection and the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. Visitors can explore galleries of contemporary and historical work.
Visit: Brooklyn Museum (museum)
Bushwick, Brooklyn — Cyrus's life of sobriety and poetry
Cyrus lives in Brooklyn with his friend Zee and Zee's partner Arash while trying to stay sober. He writes his poems on elegies and martyrs, works odd jobs, and fights relapse. The apartment is where he mulls over his mother's death and the odd ambition of writing a book on martyrs.
Bushwick was historically an industrial and German immigrant area. It became a hub for artists in the 2000s as rents rose elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Bushwick is a lively neighborhood known for street murals, galleries, and nightlife. Residential blocks remain private homes and are not open to visitors.
Troutman Street, Bushwick — Murals and the art of memorial
The novel's engagement with art, visibility, and legacy is echoed in Brooklyn's public murals. Cyrus moves through a city saturated with images of the dead and the famous while he considers what it means to be remembered. The street art stands in for the public memorials he wrestles with.
The Bushwick Collective was founded by Joe Ficalora in 2012, turning a neighborhood block into an outdoor gallery after the death of his mother in the same area. Artists from around the world have contributed work.
Murals along Troutman Street and nearby blocks are free to view and change regularly. It is a popular destination for walks and photography.
Visit: The Bushwick Collective (landmark)
Brooklyn — Walks, recovery, and reflection
Cyrus moves between recovery meetings, odd jobs, and solitary walks as he tries to hold on to sobriety. Green spaces like Prospect Park serve as the quiet counterpoint to his cravings and to his obsessive thoughts about his mother, Roya, and her death aboard the downed plane.
Prospect Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and opened in 1867. Many consider it a masterpiece of landscape design.
The 526-acre park includes a lake, the Long Meadow, a zoo, and the Audubon Center. It is free and open daily.
Visit: Prospect Park (park)
Church basements, Brooklyn — Cyrus's sobriety fellowship
Cyrus is newly sober after years of addiction, and he attends meetings with others who are fighting the same battle. The fellowship gives him a framework for honesty and a community, even as he spirals about meaning and purpose. His sobriety is the backdrop for each revelation about his family.
Twelve-step meetings have been held in church basements and community rooms across New York since the 1930s, shortly after Alcoholics Anonymous was founded.
Meetings take place throughout Brooklyn in private and religious spaces. These are not tourist sites and should be respected as private gatherings.
Indiana — Cyrus's childhood and his father's home
Cyrus grows up in the American Midwest after his mother's death, raised by his father, an Iranian immigrant who works at a chicken processing plant, with the family's history of loss shaping their quiet home. Indiana represents the immigrant life of exile and isolation, far from Iran and the family stories Cyrus later pursues.
Fort Wayne is Indiana's second-largest city, established around a military fort in 1794. It has long been an industrial and agricultural center in the Midwest.
Fort Wayne is a mid-sized city with museums, parks, and a revitalized downtown. Residential areas tied to the novel are private.
Strait of Hormuz — Where Roya's plane was shot down
Cyrus's mother, Roya, died when her plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf, a tragedy modeled on the 1988 downing of Iran Air Flight 655. Cyrus was a baby, and the event hangs over his whole life as a wound he can't fully understand. Her death turns her into a kind of martyr in his mind, and the novel questions who she really was.
Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down by the USS Vincennes on July 3, 1988, killing all 290 people aboard. The incident occurred over the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran-Iraq War.
The site is open water, with a memorial presence in Iran and in the memories of the families. It is not a destination that can be visited.
Capital of Iran — Family roots and Roya's past
Cyrus's family ties lead back to Iran, where his uncle Arash rode across battlefields of the Iran-Iraq War dressed as the Angel of Death to comfort and mark dying soldiers. These stories reframe Cyrus's understanding of martyrdom and his family's place in a violent history.
Tehran became Iran's capital in 1796 and grew into a major metropolis in the 20th century. It was heavily affected by the Iran-Iraq War of 1980 to 1988, including missile attacks on the city.
Tehran is a large city with museums, bazaars, and historic palaces. Its Behesht-e Zahra cemetery holds the graves of many war dead.
Visit: Golestan Palace (historic site)
South of Tehran — The martyrs' section
The theme of martyrdom runs through Cyrus's family story, from his uncle's battlefield ritual to his mother's death. Iran's cemeteries for war dead, with rows of photographs and flags, symbolize the national cult of martyrs that Cyrus tries to understand through his poetry and research.
Behesht-e Zahra opened in 1970 and is Iran's largest cemetery. It contains a large section for those killed in the Iran-Iraq War.
It is an active cemetery and a place of mourning, as well as a site tied to political history. Visitors can enter, but should be respectful of families.
Visit: Behesht-e Zahra Cemetery (landmark)
Dubai, UAE — Roya's flight departure point
Roya's final journey puts her on a flight over the Gulf, and the novel's retelling of the route reflects the real flight path of Iran Air 655, which was bound for Dubai from Bandar Abbas. The airport stands as the destination she never reached, and a symbol of the unfinished life that Cyrus tries to reconstruct.
Dubai International Airport opened in 1960 and has grown into one of the world's busiest airports for international travel.
It is a major global hub with several terminals and extensive retail. Public access is limited to travelers.
Greenwich Village, Manhattan — Poets and wandering
Cyrus is a young poet drifting through New York's literary and artistic circles, and places like Washington Square Park echo the city's poetic tradition. His wandering across the city, between readings, jobs, and recovery, reflects his search for purpose and connection after his mother's death.
Washington Square Park was a burial ground and public gallows before becoming a park in the 1820s. The marble arch, built in 1892, commemorates George Washington's inauguration.
The park is a lively public space with a fountain, chess tables, and street performers. It is free and open daily.
Visit: Washington Square Park (park)
More by Kaveh Akbar: All Kaveh Akbar books
More novels set in New York City: Browse all New York City books on Map A Story
Other nearby maps: The Bohemians by John Strausbaugh locations map · The Road by Cormac McCarthy locations map · The Girls in the Snow by Checkley Smith locations map · Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family by Nicholas Pileggi locations map