Brenda Bannister

The Tissue Veil is a dual timeframe novel, but one with a difference. The book starts off with Emily's story. It's 1901 and Queen Victoria has just died. It's a period I find interesting to read about and I really liked this opening chapter where we witness Emily and her mother going to watch the funeral procession. But tragedy is in store for Emily's family.

We then switch to Aysha's story in 2000/2001, so a hundred years later. She has a fairly standard Muslim family set up, with several generations living under the one roof, the very same one Emily used to live under. In fact, Emily's bedroom is now Aysha's and it's there that Aysha discovers Emily's journal.

Here's where it gets a bit more unusual. The title alludes to a veil between time and the two young women find that being a hundred years apart doesn't necessarily mean they can't see each other or find a way of communicating.

I loved this aspect to the book - not quite time travel but an interweaving of time. And there are many parallels between the two women's stories. The restrictions that Emily finds placed on her and the role of women in society in her time, are mirrored in Aysha's own family set up. I particularly liked the fact that it was one chapter for Emily and one for Aysha throughout the book and so the parallels were really obvious.

Each woman has their own difficulties to contend with, both from their families and in their romantic lives, friendships that see them through and those people who are out to see them fail. Ultimately though, it's heart-warming with a conclusion that I particularly loved.

It's a really interesting story, with plenty of social history within it. It's well-researched, both from the historical angle and also the cultural set up. One little niggle for me was the length. I thought it was a bit on the long side and would have liked to have seen it condensed a bit. Overall though, I enjoyed this intriguing and well-written book and thought it was a great debut novel by this author.… (altro)