One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by Scaachi Koul

Summary from Goodreads:
A collection of essays about growing up the daughter of Indian immigrants in Canada, "a land of ice and casual racism," by the cultural observer, Scaachi Koul.

In One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter, Scaachi deploys her razor-sharp humour to share her fears, outrages and mortifying experiences as an outsider growing up in Canada. Her subjects range from shaving her knuckles in grade school, to a shopping trip gone horribly awry, to dealing with internet trolls, to feeling out of place at an Indian wedding (as an Indian woman), to parsing the trajectory of fears and anxieties that pressed upon her immigrant parents and bled down a generation. Alongside these personal stories are pointed observations about life as a woman of colour, where every aspect of her appearance is open for critique, derision or outright scorn. Where strict gender rules bind in both Western and Indian cultures, forcing her to confront questions about gender dynamics, racial tensions, ethnic stereotypes and her father's creeping mortality--all as she tries to find her feet in the world.

I've followed Scaachi Koul on Twitter for a while and read a few of her Buzzfeed pieces so I was really happy to see that she had a book coming out. One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter is a really readable collection of essays. Koul covers a number of topics - growing up Indian in Canada, visiting India for a family wedding, getting annoyed about double-standards in both Western and Indian culture, the privilege of being a light-skinned brown person vs a not light-skinned brown person and how it changes between Canada and India, the social politics/pressure of female hair removal (or not), rape culture, drinking culture, and her relationship with her parents. I laughed a bit, cried a bit, agreed a bit, and got real mad for a bit.

Congrats to Scaachi on her selection for the BN Discover Great New Writers program!

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

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