CATHERINE BANNER was born in Cambridge, UK and began writing at the age of 14. She has previously published a trilogy of young adult novels: The Eyes of a King, Voices in the Dark and The Heart at War. Catherine studied English at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, and is a school teacher in the UK. The House at the Edge of the Night is her first adult novel.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book
An NPR Best Book

"Catherine Banner's debut adult novel is set on Castellamare, a fictional Italian island that is charmed into existence by a talented storyteller. . . . The House at the Edge of Night is gorgeous, an epic, detailed and heart-filled family saga. . . . Imaginative and wholly absorbing." —Marissa Stapley, The Globe and Mail

"Catherine Banner's House at the Edge of Night reveals the magic of out-of-the-way places. . . . [Banner] demonstrates how powerful storytelling can be. In her hands such an art needs no advocacy." —National Post

"The House at the Edge of Night is a lovely novel . . . a misty Mediterranean dream of a book. . . . Banner animates the familiar: Like pictures of a childhood summer, or a half-forgotten smell, this book is sweet and heady with nostalgia." —NPR

"A gorgeous, sweeping story set over four generations." —Interview Magazine

"This knockout adult debut by young British author Banner . . . is guaranteed to draw comparisons to Beautiful Ruins, Cutting for Stone and The House of the Spirits, whisking us away to a world grounded in both reality and myth, filled with marvelously peculiar characters, plotted on a grand scale. . . . Ah, what fun. Don't miss it." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A fantastic chronicle of several generations of a family living on a somewhat otherworldly Italian island. . . . Banner constructs a town life with an engaging cast of characters. . . . Banner deftly touches on weightier themes while weaving an enchanting narrative." —Publishers Weekly

"Readers, prepare to be captivated. This is an evocatively written, enchanting tale filled with richly depicted characters. . . . Transports us to a magical, enthralling world." —Irish Independent

"Catherine Banner's latest is a masterful piece of storytelling, infused with the miraculous (both in stories and in everyday life), while maintaining the difficult balance between the explainable versus the inexplicable. Through the life of a single man—a man not noteworthy in the eyes of the world—and his family, Banner touches on such broad themes as family, community, and the way global events play out in individual lives and larger society. And, just as the broader themes affect the more personal ones, Banner's style echoes the book's content: The House at the Edge of Night is captivating and beautifully rendered." —Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of ?Water for Elephants and At the Water's Edge

"My admiration for The House at the Edge of Night is boundless. Catherine Banner's writing is preternaturally mature, distinct, clear and strikingly beautiful. As I read on, I felt the resonance of classic legend and myth, the stuff of Homer, building around this world that is timeless, yet utterly its own. A gorgeous, deeply moving novel of life across a sweep of time and generations." —Peter Nichols, author of The Rocks

"To the long, eclectic tradition of the island novel, Catherine Banner has made a sparkling addition. She has created a vast world unto itself of the fictional island of Castellamare, intricately compressed and marvelously textured. Her storytelling evokes the rural tales of the great Sicilian author Giovanni Verga, the Abruzzian Ignazio Silone and the multifarious Italian Folktales compiled by Italo Calvino. But this is very much a modern story by a young Englishwoman, beautifully written, spanning over a century, framing and interweaving the fates of countless characters while conjuring a fictional chronicle that merges with, and enhances, history as we know it—a feat reserved for the most ingenious and intuitive of writers. That this is Catherine Banner's first adult novel makes it all the more remarkable." —Nicholas Christopher, author of ?A Trip to the Stars