This author delves into the depths of human experience, exploring complex relationships and cultural encounters through compelling narratives. Her style is marked by insightful observations and a rich, evocative prose that draws readers into her characters' worlds. Through her writing, she seeks to illuminate the unseen threads connecting diverse cultures and individuals, often drawing inspiration from her extensive travel experiences. Her works invite contemplation on the nature of identity and human connection within a global context.
The memoir explores the author's upbringing in a 1980s council estate in Crewe, shaped by her parents' involvement in The Divine Light Mission cult. This unique intersection of class struggles and countercultural beliefs led to significant family upheaval, resulting in lasting impacts of turmoil and poverty. Through personal reflection, the narrative delves into the complexities of identity and the consequences of radical beliefs on family dynamics.
A haunting, original and beautifully written tale Paul Torday, bestselling author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen , on A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar
It is 1923 and Evangeline English, keen lady cyclist, arrives with her sister Lizzie at the ancient Silk Route city of Kashgar to help establish a Christian mission. Lizzie is in thrall to their forceful and unyielding leader Millicent, but Eva's motivations for leaving her bourgeois life back at home are less clear-cut. As they attempt to navigate their new home and are met with resistance and calamity, Eva commences work on her book, A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar... In present-day London another story is beginning. Frieda, a young woman adrift in her own life, opens her front door one night to find a man sleeping on the landing. In the morning he is gone, leaving on the wall an exquisite drawing of a long-tailed bird and a line of Arabic script. Tayeb, who has fled to England from Yemen, has arrived on Frieda's doorstep just as she learns that she is the next-of-kin to a dead woman she has never heard of- a woman whose abandoned flat contains many surprises - among them an ill-tempered owl. The two wanderers begin an unlikely friendship as their worlds collide, and they embark on a journey that is as great, and as unexpected, as Eva's. A stunning debut peopled by unforgettable characters, A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar is an extraordinary story of inheritance and the search for belonging in a fractured and globalised world.