Actress and model Lisa Ray’s book ‘Close to the Bone’ seems to have charmed reviewers with its fluent prose and laid-back style of narration. Lisa led something of a charmed life, alternating between her family home in Canada and her professional base and home of her father’s relatives in India. That is, until cancer struck in 2009, in the form of multiple myeloma which the doctors declared ‘incurable’. Lisa overcame the cancer through the newly introduced stem cell therapy, in 2010. By the time a relapse tested her in 2012, Lisa had already begun writing the memoir ‘Close to the Bone’ that hit the bookstores last month. Browsing through the book, one marvels at the breadth and scope of her life. Born to a Polish mother and an Indian father, Lisa lived most of her life in Toronto, Canada. During her growing up years she was assailed by an identity crisis which hit her all the more when she travelled to the vibrant, if noisy, Kolkata for family vacations. She says that she never aspired to be a model but was nevertheless assimilated as one, in India. On a personal note, we recall how her first cover shoot with ‘Gladrags’ magazine over two decades ago astounded the cognoscenti with its sheer beauty and elegance. Lisa also went on to act in Deepa Mehta’s film ‘Water’ which was about the widows of Varanasi, something which she describes as a “transcendent” professional experience. ‘Close to the Bone’ discusses all that’s made up Lisa’s life – from her bohemian days spent in the company of Parisian boyfriends, to her husband Jason Dehni and daughters Sufi and Soleil as well as her gigantic battle with dreaded cancer…and much, much more. If nothing else, it’s a fascinating portrait of how life tested a shy girl who was destined to be in the limelight and, in the process, become an inspiration for several others.