Our March book club pick is Kaveh Akbar’s debut novel Martyr! It’s about Cyrus, who was born in Iran and moved to the midwest as a child after his mom died. She was one of the victims of the real-life event where the United States Navy shot an Iranian passenger-plane out of the sky reportedly by accident. The book picks up when Cyrus is in his 20s in Indiana. His dad has died recently, and he’s struggling in more ways than one.

He finds himself thinking a lot about the idea of martyrdom and what makes life truly worth living. When he learns of an artist in New York whose work explores similar topics, he has to meet her.

We are joined by two expert readers: New York Times Book Review editor MJ Franklin and host of The Stacks podcast Traci Thomas. We discuss the book in detail, including spoilers! So if you have not read the book yet, go back and listen to our spoiler-free chat with author Kaveh Akbar in the feed first.