Just Jennifer

A Lady’s Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar by Suzanne Joinson (Bloomsbury, May 2012)

In 1923 sisters Eva and Lizzie are traveling to Kashgar along the Silk Road as missionaries with the strong-willed, outgoing Millicent Frost.  Lizzie is very intent about their mission, but Eva is mostly along to write the bicycle travelogue for which she signed a contract before leaving London.  Along their route, the women encounter a young woman giving birth; the woman dies and the group, who is now caring for the newborn infant, is held under house arrest by local Muslim officials, possibly for murder.  In a separate story set in modern day London, Frieda, a young woman whose parents were free spirits, and who has not seen her mother in many years, inherits the contents of Irene Gray’s house, a woman she never knew and of whom she never heard anyone speak.  Along with a Yemeni alien whose welcome in London has been worn out, but who doesn’t know where to turn, Frieda sorts through the contents of Irene’s house, including an owl, and in the process learns more about herself and how she came to be who she is and maybe a bit why her mother was the way she was.  When the two stories finally connect, it will most likely not be a surprise, though there are several choices for how they will.  Eva’s journey and Frieda’s both become as much about self-discovery as anything else.  Both are strong willed women, though Frieda does seem as much so as Eva because of the times.  Many familiar topics are covered, but framed in such a way as to make them interesting and unique.  Well researched with keen insight this first novel is one not to miss.