Friday Recommends #9

Friday again, and it's time for my choice of book for Friday recommends...

This is an exciting book blog hop that book bloggers can take part in once a week to share with their followers, the books that they most recommend reading!

The rules for Friday Recommends are:

Follow Pen to Paper as host of the meme.
Pick a book that you've read, and have enjoyed enough to recommend to other readers. It can be a book you've read recently, or a book you read years ago - it's up to you - but make sure you tell us why you love the book (like a mini review). You make the post as long or as short as you like.
Visit the other blogs and enjoy!

My Friday Recommended read #9

 is 

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (22 May 2012) 

A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar: A Novel by Suzanne Joinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
jaffa's rating 4 paws

I was delighted to receive this book from Netgalley and my thanks to the publishers, Bloomsbury for allowing access to a pre-publication galley edition.

The story opens in Kashgar 1923, as Evangeline English, a keen lady cyclist, and her sister, Lizzie set off on China’s Silk Route into Kashgar, to help set up a Christian mission. They are travelling with Millicent, a stubborn and assertive missionary leader, who against the odds, gets drawn into a local tragedy, which subsequently forces a violent reaction from the local Muslim population. This trio of unconventional women are keen to experience adventure, but their naivety, threatens their very safety.

In present day London, Frieda finds a young man sleeping rough outside her flat, she gives him a blanket and pillow, but in the morning he is gone, leaving behind a beautiful picture of a bird together with an Arab inscription drawn onto the wall behind where he slept. An unlikely friendship develops between Frieda and this young man, and together they embark upon a journey of discovery, as Frieda seeks out more information about a mysterious inheritance.

What then follows is a cleverly constructed dual time narrative with colourful descriptions of life in Kashgar, balanced against vivid images of present day adventures. The author has managed to weave the two stories quite well, and although at times the narrative seems a little clumsy, overall, I thought that this was an enjoyable read, and a good example of what happens when the present involves itself in the past.