City of Good Death

By Priyanka Champaneri

Book Description

In the sacred city of Kashi, where the Ganges flows and funeral pyres burn eternally, Pramesh has found his calling as manager of a death hostel. For a decade, he has guided pilgrims seeking their final release from the cycle of rebirth, offering comfort to families as they prepare their loved ones for the purifying flames. His philosophy is simple: the soul departs, the body burns, the moment passes. Detachment is everything.

Pramesh's carefully ordered world revolves around this ancient rhythm of death and transcendence. Alongside his wife Shobha, their daughter Rani, and the hostel's devoted staff, he has created a sanctuary where the dying can find peace and families can find closure. In this timeless place, he has almost convinced himself that past and future hold no power.

But when a drowned man is pulled from the sacred river, bearing an unsettling resemblance to Pramesh himself, the carefully maintained boundaries of his existence begin to crumble. The stranger is his estranged cousin Sagar, a connection to a village life and family conflicts Pramesh believed he had left behind forever. Their childhood bond, severed by Pramesh's choices and marriage, now threatens to unravel the spiritual equilibrium he has worked so hard to achieve.

As mysterious disruptions plague the death hostel and the natural order seems suspended, Pramesh must confront the very attachments he has spent years trying to release.