What if death wasn't sacred — but strangely, beautifully, absurdly ordinary? Meet the unnamed crew of George Town's crematorium — a collective of 70-year-old Polynesian-French operators who speak in French-Malaysian Creole, handle ashes with surgical precision, and laugh through the smoke. In Ashes in George Town, they recount ten unforgettable funerals — from the Malay bride in the pink coffin to the French tourist who mistook them for a spa — each revealing how culture, commerce, and comedy collide at the edge of eternity.- - Witness the Chinese businessman who demanded his ashes be stored in a Yixing teapot — and the crew who bought it themselves. - Feel the quiet dignity of the Indian widow who sang hymns until the flames caught. - Laugh at the Polynesian sailor who requested a coconut shell urn — and the crew who delivered it, despite the logistics. - Be moved by the teenager whose ashes were scattered at his favorite surf beach — and the crew who drove there in silence. Written with unsentimental clarity and wry existential humor, this hybrid memoir-essay collection turns the crematory into a stage for humanity's final act — where grief, ritual, and absurdity dance in the heat of the retort. "A darkly comic, deeply human meditation on what remains — and what doesn't — when the body is gone." Perfect for readers who crave literary nonfiction with bite, cultural insight, and a touch of gallows humor. If you've ever wondered what happens after the last prayer, this is the book that dares to answer — with bone-dry wit and heart.