Death, as we know it, does not indulge in dialogue. (Maybe a little negotiation as we run between hospitals and pharmacies!) Yama does not relent. Yet in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Mahabharata, and even modern accounts, he appears as a wise and captivating conversationalist. The King of Death charms a child, pacifies the unyielding and discloses the secret of immortality to anyone with the patience to listen to him. In a brilliant feat of creative imagination, rooted deep in scholarship, Sudhamahi Regunathan dares to capture the essence of Yama, not as a grim reaper but as a charismatic and compassionate guide of the dead and of the living