1. What is your favourite genre to read?
Fiction; and within fiction, I’m a promiscuous reader.
2. What was the first book that you read?
I’m quite sure it was Roald Dahl- something a bit dark and ironic like The Twits.
3. What book are you reading currently?
I’m always reading quite a few books simultaneously. Currently, I'm reading:
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara- Normal People by Sally Rooney- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid- The Twice-Born by Aatish Taseer
4. What books can be found on your nightstand?
Normally books that deal with spirituality and Buddhism. My husband has recently been introduced to Nicheren Buddhism, so I’ve been flipping through his copy of Happiness by Daisaku Ikeda, but my favoured masters are Osho and Jack Kornfield. And Pema Chodron’s When Things Fall Apart is an absolute classic that should be returned to again and again.
5. One great writer/ novelist that you admire the most?
I’m really hard pressed to answer that, but the first that comes to mind is my beloved Pico Iyer. There’s something spiritual in his prose that I can’t put my finger on. He has such a fine catalogue of work to chose from.
6. One book you would choose to be stuck with on a deserted island?
Another truly unfair question, but I’d go with Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. And inside Midnight’s Children would be a copy of the Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Two opposite ends of the spectrum, literature wise. If my kids were with me, it would be different: Conscious Parenting by Shefali Tsabary and the Collected Works of Ramana Maharishi to give me perspective.
7. What is the one book you wish you had written?
I have two: Educated by Tara Westover and Less by Andrew Sean Greer.
8. What was the last book that made you cry/emotional?
I’d say The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay.
9. If you had a book club, what would it be reading- and why?
Honestly, I’m a magpie, I gravitate towards all sorts of fiction. A book club is great when you are exposed to books one normally would not read. I would probably be a pusher though: Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk and Jeanette Winterson are my go to writers, who are still prolific.
10. What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
If you are not writing everyday, or thinking of writing, or reading obsessively, find something else to do. If you are- you’re a writer and don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.
Lisa's latest book Close to the Bone is an unflinching, deeply moving account of her life, tracing her childhood in Canada as the biracial daughter of an Indian man and a Polish woman, her rise as a popular Bollywood star and her battle with a rare, incurable cancer. At once funny, charming and gut-wrenchingly honest, Close to the Bone is Lisa Ray's brave and inspiring story of a life lived on her own terms.
