From the author of the “luminous [and] gorgeous” (Susan Wiggs) Haunting Jasmine comes a glorious new novel that reaches straight into to the heart to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit… “I wonder how my carefully planned life could have tipped so far out of balance?” Into the quaint town of Fairport on Shelter Island comes Lily Byrne, a young widow who is not so much running from the old but rather edging toward something new and indefinable. Here in the peaceful Pacific Northwest, newly engaged in her vintage clothing boutique, she hides from the world. But Lily knows that solitude can’t sustain her forever. Somehow, somewhere, something’s got to give. It does, with the unexpected arrival of an exuberant little cat. As Lily searches for the cat’s true home, she embarks on a journey just as unpredictable—one of healing and renewal that opens up a whole new world in this small island community she now calls home. Saved by the hidden graces of others, she even allows herself to fall in love again. But how much of this is serendipity? How much is destiny? As Lily starts looking at herself, and her life, in an enlightening new way, she can’t help but also wonder, how long can such good fortune last?
Author
I was born in India, raised in Canada and California, and I now live in the Pacific Northwest, in a cottage in the woods, with my husband and six rescued cats. I've always loved to write. When I was seven, I penned my first story about an abandoned puppy on a beach in Bengal. Then, inspired by my maternal grandmother—an English writer who lived in India—I wrote a mystery, The Green Secret, at the age of nine. I illustrated the book, stapled the pages together and pasted a copyright notice inside the front cover. After that, I churned out a series of mysteries and adventure novels with preposterous premises and impossible plots. Growing up in a small town in Manitoba, Canada, my favorite family event was the weekly drive to the garbage dump to watch for bears. I also loved jaunts to the library, where I checked out the same Curious George books dozens of times. I adored a picture book called The Bear Who Couldn’t Sleep, starring a baby bear who refused to hibernate in winter. My favorite authors were Enid Blyton, Agatha Christie, Alexander Key, C.S. Lewis and others. Every night my dad read to me from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia or Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. After I grew up and finished university, I tried on jobs like new sets of clothes before rediscovering my love for writing. Since then, my fiction has appeared in several literary journals and an anthology, and I was a contributing writer for three regional history books and local newspapers before I began writing novels. I've now written five novels for youngsters and four for grownups, including ENCHANTING LILY. Romantic Times magazine gave ENCHANTING LILY a top rating of 4.5 stars: "This is a wonderful story with lovable characters who are trying to start fresh after tragedy touches their lives. Readers will fall head over heels for a four-legged character who almost upstages the two-legged leads.” Of my recent novel, HAUNTING JASMINE, Melinda Bargreen of The Seattle Times wrote, “Banerjee invites the reader into her colorful, hopeful world, one in which the Northwest island tides coexist with the ghost of Julia Child, Charles Dickens’ mirror, and a sari or two.” I've had many more wonderful reviews, but like any author, I know what it's like to receive a not-so-nice review. So I'm going to review only the books I love. I want to put positive energy out into the world. Thank you for reading my books!
