The Librarian's Husband's Book Club discussion

Our July read in the Global Firsts category is Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar—a poetic, searching novel that’s been called “electrifying” and “a modern classic in the making.”

What are your expectations going in? Have you read Akbar’s poetry before? Use this thread to share your early thoughts before we turn the first page.

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Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident; and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict, and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past—toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.

Hold placed. I have 3 Librarys on my Libby account and the shortest wait is 7 weeks. ☹️

I had a 6 week wait when I reserved it yesterday...and then 24 hours later, it's mine. Libby is a mystery sometimes. Hope your wait moves quickly too, Julie.

Didn't have much knowledge about the author or plot. A friend who read it recently said there's tie-ins (pretty certain this isn't spoilery to say) to the real world events involving Iranian Airflight 655. Too young to remember when that occurred, but read a little about it today to have that historical context going into it.

That moment when your library hold comes in just before a long weekend!

These books are hot! My library has both of them marked as bestsellers, and I can only borrow them for 7 days with no renewal. I started with Martyr! Wish me luck..

I had to sit with the book for a bit after reading it. I had a day where I did chores and listened to this book. The audiobook was excellently narrated.
Here is my review on Goodreads.
I will say, the book is filled with soul searching.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...