University Book Store Presents Priyanka Champaneri in conversation with Dr. Anu Taranath

Get your copy of "The City of Good Death" (Restless Books): bit.ly/3yZo8eg
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About the book: As the dutiful manager of a death hostel in Banaras on the banks of the Ganges, Pramesh Prasad administers to dying Hindu pilgrims who hope to be released from earthly reincarnation. He lives and works contentedly with his wife, Shobha, their young daughter, Rani, the hostel priests, his hapless but winning assistant Mohan, and the constant flow of families with their dying kin. But one day the past arrives in the form of a body pulled from the river-a man with an uncanny resemblance to Pramesh.
Called “twins” in their childhood village, he and his cousin Sagar are inseparable until Pramesh leaves to see the outside world and Sagar stays to tend the land. After Pramesh marries Shobha, defying his family’s wishes, a rift opens between the cousins that he has willed himself to forget. Yet for Shobha, Sagar’s reemergence casts a shadow over the life she’s built for her family. Soon, an unwelcome guest takes up residence in the death hostel, the dying mysteriously continue to live, and Pramesh is forced to confront his own ideas about death, rebirth, and redemption.
Told in lush, vivid detail and with an unforgettable cast of characters, "The City of Good Death" is a remarkable debut novel of family and love, memory and ritual, and the ways in which we honor the living and the dead.
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Priyanka Champaneri received her MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts numerous times. Her debut novel, "The City of Good Death," won the 2018 Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and was shortlisted for the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.
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Dr. Anu Taranath brings both passion and expertise to her work as a speaker, facilitator, author and educator. A University of Washington professor for the past 20 years, she teaches about race, gender, equity, and global literatures. As a DEI and racial equity consultant, she offers coaching, training, facilitation and other types of partnerships. Her book "Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World" was selected a Winner of the Newsweek Future of Travel Awards in Storytelling, a Finalist for four book awards including the Washington State Book Award. To read more about Dr. Anu Taranath, please visit anutaranath.com.