Shilpi Somaya Gowda was born and raised in Toronto; her parents had migrated there from Mumbai. She holds an MBA from Stanford University, and a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1991, she spent a summer as a volunteer in an Indian orphanage, which seeded the idea for her first novel, Secret Daughter (Morrow, March 9, 2010). She lives in Texas with her husband and children.
On your nightstand now:
I usually have a stack of books I intend to read. Currently, they include A History of Love by Nicole Krauss, Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund, Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra, Shantaram by Gregory David and Bloodletting & Other Miraculous Cures by Victor Lam.
Favorite book when you were a child:
A Separate Peace by John Knowles. I must have read it a couple times every year all throughout my adolescence, and always found a new layer of meaning.
Your top five authors:
I admire those authors who write beautifully while still creating a compelling story, and those who can be versatile. Some of my favorites are Margaret Atwood, Rohinton Mistry, Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Patchett and Ian McEwan.
Book you've faked reading:
Well, not faked, but I have intended to read Ayn Rand for close to two decades. Atlas Shrugged was the first book I ever ordered when I joined the Book-of-the-Month club (and it even counted as two books), but there it still sits on my bookshelf.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh. I continue to be awed by how deeply relevant Lindbergh's reflections from the 1950s are to modern life. I have given copies to many friends.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I am not often swayed by covers, except when it comes to cookbooks. I bought one called Indian Cuisine because the photos were so beautiful, even though I already knew most of the recipes inside. That's good marketing.
Book that changed your life:
That's a tall order. Though I prefer to read fiction, I would say certain nonfiction books have affected me the most. I read Freedom at Midnight by Dominique Lapierre in my early teens and understood, for the first time, the history and heritage I was connected to in India. And as an economics major, Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher had a big impact on how I see the world.
Favorite line from a book:
"Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself." --"Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. I was absolutely riveted the first time I read this book, with how masterfully Stegner could write about the small things in life and also create such a compelling read. I would love to experience the wonder of that again.