The opening two novels are published together, tracing one family across four countries, with a separate paperback edition for readers in India
SANTA CLARA, CA — Neil Banerjee, a technology executive who spent more than twenty-five years in consumer electronics, semiconductors, automotive and connected devices, has published the first two novels of The Gate of Belonging, a planned five-book work of literary fiction tracing one family across Kolkata, Berlin, Boston, Copenhagen and Delhi. Both are available now in paperback and ebook editions, with a separate paperback edition released in India through Notion Press.
Releasing two full-length novels at the same time is unusual in literary fiction, where the books in a series usually appear a year or more apart. Banerjee wrote both books as a single continuous work and published them together so readers could move between them without waiting.
The first novel, What the Gate First Knew, begins in Kolkata and follows Abir Das through a departure he expects to be temporary, and through a marriage to the architect Harleen Kaur that never resolves into a single country. The second, What the Gate Remembers, moves a generation forward to their children, Arin and Mira, and to what a migration hands down to people who never chose it.
The gate mentioned in the title is real – in Asansol, West Bengal, at the house of the author’s maternal grandparents.
“I have been leaving since my first job took me to Chennai, and every departure after that one taught me something the previous one hadn’t. What I did not anticipate was that my children would inherit the leaving without ever having done it themselves. These books came out of that gap – the distance between choosing to go and being born into the going.”
Banerjee left India in the late 1990’s and has lived and worked in Europe and the United States since.
The India editions of both novels carry a preface written for that audience.
Three further novels in the series are in progress.
The Gate of Belonging is available in paperback and ebook editions. Retailer links for both novels, including the Notion Press editions for readers in India, are at www.nban.io/books. What the Gate First Knew is available on Amazon at amazon.com/dp/B0H8R9PCPW.
Book details
What the Gate First Knew – paperback $19.99, ISBN 979-8-9970669-0-1; ebook $5.99, ISBN 979-8-9970669-1-8 What the Gate Remembers – paperback $19.99, ISBN 979-8-9970669-2-5; ebook $7.99, ISBN 979-8-9970669-3-2 Published July 13, 2026.
About the author
Neil Banerjee is a novelist based in Santa Clara, California. Born in Burnpur, West Bengal, India, he began his international career in the late 1990s and has since lived in Europe and the United States. The Gate of Belonging is his first published work of fiction.
Media contact
Neil Banerjee press@nban.io +1 650-564-7134 Press materials, author photos, cover images and full-length bios: www.nban.io/press
Review copies available on request.
Links to : https://www.nban.io/books
