Dava Shastri's Last Day
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4.3 • 4 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
In this novel "full of music, magnetism, and familial obligation" (Emma Straub, author of All Adults Here) a dying billionaire matriarch leaks news of her death early so she can examine her legacy—a decision that horrifies her children and inadvertently exposes secrets she has spent a lifetime keeping.
Dava Shastri, one of the world's wealthiest women, has always lived with her sterling reputation in mind. A brain cancer diagnosis at the age of seventy, however, changes everything, and Dava decides to take her death—like all matters of her life—into her own hands.
Summoning her four adult children to her private island, she discloses shocking news: in addition to having a terminal illness, she has arranged for the news of her death to break early, so she can read her obituaries.
As someone who dedicated her life to the arts and the empowerment of women, Dava expects to read articles lauding her philanthropic work. Instead, her "death" reveals two devastating secrets, truths she thought she had buried forever.
And now the whole world knows, including her children.
In the time she has left, Dava must come to terms with the decisions that have led to this moment—and make peace with those closest to her before it's too late. Compassionately written and chock-full of humor and heart, this powerful novel examines public versus private legacy, the complexities of love, and the never-ending joys—and frustrations—of family.
Includes a Reading Group Guide.
A Good Morning America and Lilly Singh's Lilly Library Book Club pick
Most anticipated in fall 2021 by TIME, The Washington Post, Bustle, Goodreads, and Debutiful • An Indie Next Pick • A Publishers Marketplace Buzz Book for Fall/Winter 2021 • Longlisted for the 2021 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ramisetti's uneven, somewhat overstuffed debut features a family drama suffused with music and media attention. The year is 2044, and 70-year-old billionaire Dava Shastri, recently diagnosed with terminal cancer, has arranged to die by assisted suicide on her private island off the coast of Long Island, surrounded by family members gathered for the winter holidays. Shastri, who got rich as a music industry disrupter but made a name for herself through philanthropy, can't resist knowing what the world will make of her legacy. She leaks news of her death just days before planning to follow through, but to her consternation, news websites fixate on speculation about an Oscar-winning love song written by an old friend, purportedly about her, and on a blog post by a woman who thinks Dava might be her mother. Dava's flashbacks to her younger years are punctuated by revealing conversations with each of her four adult children, who fret about their shares of the estate and struggle with their own inner conflicts. The characters' intense reactions to the media revelations feel out of proportion to their actual import, however, and there's a numbing sameness to the family's interactions with one another, though Ramisetti excels in her portrait of a woman facing the end of a remarkably expansive and generous life. Overall, this feels a bit too digressive.
