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

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.

Dua talked with Kaveh Akbar to discuss about his book Martyr! for the September monthly read. More details below.

https://www.service95.com/books/martyr

New 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.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro has been chosen as the Service95 Book Club October monthly read book.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Dd6nFIsF6kq/

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

New teaser from the upcoming Service95 newsletter out tomorrow.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeH7_x_F1is/

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 himself

Whether 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.

Dua talked with Kazuo Ishiguro to discuss about his book Klara And The Sun for the October monthly read. More details below.

https://www.service95.com/books/klara-and-the-sun-2

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeKA8YmDe7R/

New podcast episode out now!

This month, Dua Lipa is joined by Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro to discuss Klara And The Sun and the questions the novel raises about technological advancement, loneliness and what it means to be human.

In their conversation, Dua and Ishiguro explore the importance of hope, connection and art, why he chose Klara – an Artificial Friend – as the story’s narrator, and the ethical questions raised by a world where children can be genetically edited. They also discuss Ishiguro’s thoughts on seeing his novel brought to the big screen by Taika Waititi, and what his much anticipated upcoming novel is all about.

This is a conversation not to be missed, so head to the Service95 Book Club podcast to watch the full episode and explore more content around Dua’s #MonthlyRead at Service95.com

Service95 and Google Maps team up to show Dua's list of favourite bookstores around the world.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeecPCcDhQZ/

This one’s special. Lala Books, Boundary Bookstore, Albertine, and Paperback — check out Dua Lipa’s Google Maps list of favourite bookstores around the world.

#GooglePartner

Dua made a post about Lincoln In the Bardo at The Met Opera, sharing that Service95 has done a mini documentary about it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeuXFNVDKYF/

Last night, Lincoln In The Bardo at The Met Opera 🖤

Service95 has been honoured to be making a behind the scenes mini doc about what it takes to translate a novel of this calibre to one of the world’s most prestigious stages. George Saunders sat for an exclusive interview with Service95 which was filmed at the New York Public Library.

The mini doc will premiere this evening UK time on Service95's YouTube!

Service95 and Google Maps team up to show Dua's list of favourite places in Tokyo.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeweC0UCG_g/

Find Dua Lipa’s favourite vintage at Amore Tokyo, menu-free omakase at Narukiyo, and intimate art experience at the Yayoi Kusama Museum. Dua’s Tokyo Culture and Eats on Google Maps. #GooglePartner

White Teeth by Zadie Smith has been chosen as the Service95 Book Club November monthly read book.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DfPH0PAuAvH/

Next up for the Service95 Book Club…

“In 2000, Zadie Smith detonated the books world with White Teeth and has been part of our literary DNA ever since. She’s been compared to everyone from Dickens to Rushdie, which is staggering praise for a debut author barely out of university.

This glorious and hilarious intergenerational soap opera of multicultural London spans the 20th century, told through the eyes of the Iqbals and the Joneses, two families you will never forget.

It starts with middle-aged big-hearted loser Archie Jones attempting – and failing – to gas himself in his car, stung by a failed first marriage from which all he salvaged was the vacuum cleaner. He meets 19-year-old Clara, a recovering Jehovah’s Witness of Jamaican heritage, at an End of the World party in a North London squat, and life begins again.

Archie’s friend Samad Iqbal, who looks a bit like Omar Sharif from a certain angle, is still waiting for his wife to be born when the two men meet in the last days of the Second World War. When Samad and Alsana finally meet at their wedding three decades later, she is more than a match - physically and mentally - for her much older husband.

The next generation – twins Millat and Magid Iqbal and Irie Jones – ramp up the volume, pushing their parents to the limit as they challenge their ideas of home and identity.

It’s a big, loud, boisterous and fiercely clever book. Reading Zadie play with the multitudes of language on London’s streets, and explore identity, community and the competing pulls of nature and nurture, is an unforgettable experience. No wonder this book became the literary landmark for a generation.”

- Dua x