Ashes is a memoir by the firstborn child of Bengali immigrants from Calcutta, India, that brings forth universal life lessons that transcend ethnicity. With raw honesty and simple prose, Ms. Mukherji depicts her childhood of cultural confusion, schoolyard bullies, and the demands of her brilliant, abusive alcoholic father. She offers her mother's stoic wisdom and love for all to share. By her early 20s, Ms. Mukherji seeks clarity instead of pity and details her search for herself through psychotherapy and spiritual studies. The result of that search costs her everything. The suicide of her mother leaves Ms. Mukherji in the thick darkness of grief and sorrow. Both propel her into destructive yet illuminating choices. In time, she gathers her experiences and uses them to transform her life into the one she wants and the one she may claim in her mother's absence. Ashes shows the listener they are not alone in their struggles and that they can look within themselves to survive and grow from life's precious and painful surprises.