What are good book club discussion questions for Martyr!?

Spoiler-free questions to get the conversation going: Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did you find yourself needing a blanket, a snack, or a break? This book has a way of asking for all three; Cyrus is a poet keeping a running list of ideas and notes. If you kept a notebook like that this month, what small thing would be in it?; Cyrus is looking for a death that means something, which is really a way of asking for a life that means something. When you were reading, what gave you the feeling that your own days count? Keep it small and ordinary if you like; So much of this book is about being loved by people who are not your parents: friends, roommates, sponsors, strangers. Who has been that kind of family for you, and did any scene here remind you of them?; Akbar writes about longing for a country and a language that feel partly yours and partly out of reach. Is there a place, a language, a recipe, or a grandparent's phrase you feel that pull toward?.

What food and drinks should I serve at a Martyr! book club?

Food: Big pot of ash reshteh (Persian herb and noodle soup) with a dollop of kashk or sour cream, Warm bread and feta plate with walnuts, mint, and honey, and Date and cardamom cookies, or store-bought ranginak with a plate of medjool dates. Drinks: Cardamom and rose tea in a big insulated pot, served in small clear glasses with sugar cubes on the side, Hot saffron milk with honey, and Spiced pomegranate mulled wine (with a non-boozy pitcher of the same, warmed, for anyone skipping).

Cozy night

Martyr!Book club questions, food & host guide

Kaveh Akbar

Picked by

Service95 Book Club

A cozy book club night for Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar. Includes 8 spoiler-free discussion questions, food and drink pairings, a playlist, and a host guide, ready to print and share.

A club that likes beautiful sentences and does not mind getting a little misty over tea

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A tender, funny, grief-soaked novel about an orphaned Iranian American poet in recovery who goes looking for a meaningful way to live (and maybe die), and finds unexpected people to love along the way. It is lyrical and lonely and warm all at once, which makes it perfect for a soft-lit room full of friends.

Why it works for clubs

Grief, addiction, and recovery are handled with tenderness, so people tend to share their own stories gently
It is a poet's novel: everyone will come with a different favorite sentence
Family history and immigration leave big open questions readers love to sit with
Short, shifting sections and dream sequences give the group lots of easy entry points

Themes & mood

Tender grief Poet's prose Recovery Diaspora longing Searching

Browse all themes →

Reading level

Moderate

Pages

380

Warm-up questions

1 Where did you do most of your reading of this one, and did you find yourself needing a blanket, a snack, or a break? This book has a way of asking for all three.
2 Cyrus is a poet keeping a running list of ideas and notes. If you kept a notebook like that this month, what small thing would be in it?

Digging in

1 Cyrus is looking for a death that means something, which is really a way of asking for a life that means something. When you were reading, what gave you the feeling that your own days count? Keep it small and ordinary if you like.
2 So much of this book is about being loved by people who are not your parents: friends, roommates, sponsors, strangers. Who has been that kind of family for you, and did any scene here remind you of them?
3 Akbar writes about longing for a country and a language that feel partly yours and partly out of reach. Is there a place, a language, a recipe, or a grandparent's phrase you feel that pull toward?
4 Recovery in this novel is shown as unglamorous and daily, mostly rooms and coffee and phone calls. Did that depiction feel comforting to you, or hard to sit with, and why?

Going deep

1 The word martyr carries honor, horror, and a kind of showing off, all at once. By the time you closed the book, had your feeling about that word softened, hardened, or just gotten more complicated? No need to say what changed it.
2 This is a book full of absences: a mother, a country, a God who may or may not be listening. Which absence stayed with you after the last page, and did the book leave you feeling tended to or unsettled?

On the table

Big pot of ash reshteh (Persian herb and noodle soup) with a dollop of kashk or sour cream

The most grandmotherly dish in the Persian repertoire: green, thick, forgiving, and easy to make in one pot the night before. It matches the book's Iranian heart and its hunger for home.

Warm bread and feta plate with walnuts, mint, and honey

Noon-o-paneer is the everyday Iranian comfort breakfast and snack. Zero cooking, and it keeps people grazing and talking instead of performing.

Date and cardamom cookies, or store-bought ranginak with a plate of medjool dates

Sweet, sticky, and a little indulgent. Dates show up at Iranian funerals and celebrations alike, which quietly fits a book about mourning and still wanting dessert.

To sip

Cardamom and rose tea in a big insulated pot, served in small clear glasses with sugar cubes on the side No alcohol

Persian tea culture is pure hospitality: keep it hot all night and let people hold the glass with both hands. Zero alcohol, maximum comfort.

Hot saffron milk with honey No alcohol

A warm, golden nightcap for a book with a lot of insomnia and bad dreams in it. Nurturing, lightly fancy, and still alcohol free.

Spiced pomegranate mulled wine (with a non-boozy pitcher of the same, warmed, for anyone skipping)

Pomegranate is the fruit of Persian poetry, and warm wine suits a slow couch night. Because recovery is central to this book, make the alcohol optional and never the centerpiece.