The Many Deaths of Laila Starr

One Wednesday afternoon in late December, the Goddess of Death is summoned to a meeting with her supervisor. He informs her that a child named Darius has just been born in Mumbai, and that since he’s fated to unlock the secret of eternal life, her services will soon be unnecessary. The supervisor presents this as happy news, but Death isn’t ready to retire. She travels to Earth and takes over the body of recently deceased twenty-something Laila Starr to prevent the newborn from rendering her obsolete. Author Ram V (These Steady Shores) concocts an array of quirky and/or macabre obstacles and incidents to hinder Laila’s progress, forcing her to spend decades enduring the various pains and pleasures inherent to mortal life. Meanwhile, she watches Darius mature from a lonely boy into a world-famous scientist with a loving family, only to lose everything and end up an isolated hermit, and begins to wonder whether it’s the inevitability of death that gives life meaning, or the experience of being alive in and of itself.