Dava Shastri's Last Day

“‘From my body,flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity’- Edvard Munch” The premise is very “daytime serial”[aka soap opera-ish]:In 2044,a wealthy woman philanthropist decides on assisted dying, invites family to be with her, announces her death a day early so she can read her own obituaries, but instead of the hagiographies she was hoping for, old secrets spill out. So, when I opened the book- one that quickly jumped onto “everybody has to read this” list (and was in my TBR list), I was kind of disappointed. I think these same premises could have been a much shorter book. It is very hard to read. I purposefully steered clear of reviews, and I’m sure they are all over the charts. Imagine needing to plan your death because you want to see how the world might remember you. Yes, she is terminal and close to the end but to want to see the accolades: affirmations that she did well. And when they aren’t, it takes her kids, going through their own issues to complete the story. That’s where I began to lose interest.