August 27Aug 27 Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar has been chosen as the Service95 Book Club September monthly read book.Coming up next for the Service95 Book Club..."My monthly read for September is Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. The story follows Cyrus Shams, a young Iranian American who is suicidally sad but desperate not to waste his suicide. The long shadow of his mother’s death on Iran Air Flight 655 – tragically shot out of the sky by the US navy during the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 – looms over his life.Cyrus is a recovering addict learning to live with his sobriety. In his quest to find meaning and come to terms with the death of his mother, he develops an obsession with martyrdom.Martyr! made me think about martyrdom in ways I’d never considered. Yes, Cyrus’s thoughts turn to hunger strikers and those prepared to give their life for their country. But when he encounters Orkideh, a terminally ill artist living out her final days on display in the Brooklyn Museum, he begins to see the question of sacrifice through an entirely different lens.The book fizzes with chaotic energy and a thirst for life that is at odds with Cyrus’s obsession with death. It’s also very funny, with Cyrus playing ‘good person drag’ as a medical actor performing pain for cash, and Lisa Simpson making a cameo in long dream-sequence dialogues.This novel is profound, sincere, regularly comedic and quite unlike anything I’ve ever read before."- Dua x
August 31Aug 31 New teaser from the upcoming Service95 newsletter out tomorrow.We hear some of you are rather excited for this one 👀You’ll be pleased to know the wait is almost over. All the content for Dua’s September #MonthlyRead – Martyr! – will be landing in your inboxes tomorrow.A poignant and generous exploration of addiction, identity, mortality and belonging, Kaveh Akbar’s novel is, as Dua Lipa puts it, “something else”. Chaotic, funny and deeply moving, if you’re looking for a book that will stop you in your tracks and have you reflecting on everything you thought you knew about life and artistry – this is it.In tomorrow’s newsletter, we’ll go beyond the page, with a look at the real-life story that shaped the novel, an essay from artist Osman Yousefzada (Osman Studio) exploring the connection between art and our histories, Kaveh’s reading recommendations and more.Stay tuned for Dua’s interview and make sure you’re subscribed for the full Service95 Book Club experience here.
September 2Sep 2 Dua talked with Kaveh Akbar to discuss about his book Martyr! for the September monthly read. More details below.https://www.service95.com/books/martyrNew podcast episode out now! This month Dua Lipa sits down with author and poet Kaveh Akbar to discuss his debut novel Martyr!, which is Dua’s #MonthlyRead for September.A poignant and generous exploration of addiction, identity, art and exile, Martyr! centres around Cyrus Shams, a newly sober poet struggling to find his footing in life while reckoning with the loss of his mother decades earlier.Together, Dua and Kaveh explore Cyrus’s grief, addiction and search for a sense of place, as well as the real-life events woven into the novel and the power of fiction to bring the human consequences of history into focus. They also discuss Kaveh’s philosophy on art, his journey from poetry into fiction and his friendship with fellow author Tommy Orange, which shaped his writing rituals. Whether you’ve read Martyr!, plan to, or still need convincing, this is a conversation worth listening to. Find the full conversation on the Service95 Book Club podcast.
Thursday at 04:155 days Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro has been chosen as the Service95 Book Club October monthly read book.Next up for the Service95 Book Club…“I first read Klara And The Sun when it was published in 2021 and I’ve devoured Kazuo Ishiguro’s entire back catalogue since. I’m totally hooked.Klara is an AF – an artificial friend – designed to be a caring companion to 14-year-old Josie. In many ways it’s a traditional coming of age story. But right from the start, it’s clear this isn’t quite the world we know. Children are taught remotely via on-screen tutors and are genetically edited, or “lifted”, in a procedure intended to give them advanced intelligence but at great cost – sometimes their very lives.The crisis at the heart of the novel is whether Josie, who is sick, will recover with Klara’s help and, if she doesn’t, will her mother survive the loss? Klara begs the sun to pour its nourishment into Josie with an unquestioning belief in its power and goodness.One of the joys of this novel is the trust that Ishiguro places in readers to catch the small details: what happened to Josie’s sister Sal, who died before the story begins? Why does her father live in an armed community? And what is the mysterious ‘portrait’ Mr Capaldi wants to make of Klara?At a time when AI's impact is questioned daily, this novel feels prescient. But at its core this is a book about our humanity – what it means to be human and why that is irreplaceable.Klara And The Sun is one of my favourite novels by one of our greatest living authors. I can’t wait to get into it all with you.”- Dua x
18 hours ago18 hr New teaser from the upcoming Service95 newsletter out tomorrow.The wait is almost over for our founder Dua Lipa’s conversation with Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro.Tomorrow, we’ll be unpacking Klara And The Sun, Dua’s #MonthlyRead for October. Set in the near future, where children are genetically edited, the novel follows Klara, an Artificial Friend devoted to caring for a sick teenage girl, Josie, in a moving exploration of love, loneliness and how to be human in a world increasingly shaped by technology.In tomorrow’s newsletter you can expect:📖 Dua and Ishiguro’s full conversation on the podcast, diving in to the novel's themes and more📖 An essay on the loneliness economy and our growing dependence on companion AI📖 Books and films shaped by our changing relationship with technology📖 Ishiguro’s playlist inspired by the book (the perfect soundtrack to your reading)📖 Seven authors explore their favourite Ishiguro novels📖 A reading list curated by Ishiguro himselfWhether you’re discovering Klara And The Sun for the first time or have been waiting for an excuse to revisit it, there’s plenty to explore.Make sure you’re subscribed to the Service95 Book Club newsletter to get all this and more delivered straight to your inbox tomorrow here.
