Beginning ~ with Mair's discovery

The Kashmir Shawl ~ by Rosie Thomas, 2011, fiction (India)

Mair made the discovery on the last day at home in the old house.  The three of them were upstairs in their father's bedroom.  They had come together for the melancholy business of sorting and clearing their parents' furniture and possessions, before closing up the house for the last time and handing over the keys to the estate agent.

I know, from this summary of the book, that Mair is the granddaughter of the main character from 1941:

It is the eve of 1941 and World War II is engulfing the globe. Newlywed Nerys Watkins leaves rural Britain to accompany her husband on a missionary posting to India, but when he leaves her in the exotic lakeside of Srinagar to take on a complicated mission elsewhere, she discovers a new world.  Here, in the heart of Kashmir, the British dance, flirt, and gossip against the backdrop of war and Nerys soon becomes caught up in a dangerous liaison.  By the time she is reunited with her husband, she is a very different woman.

Years later, Nerys's granddaughter Mair Ellis clears out her dead father's house and finds an exquisite shawl — a kaleidoscope of silvery blues and greens.  Wrapped in the folds of this delicate object is a lock of a child's curly hair.  With nothing else to go on, Mair decides to trace her roots back to Kashmir, embarking on a quest that will change her own life forever.

Whose lock of hair is that?  I'll have to read the book to find out.  But first, here's a book trailer:



If the video quits working, view it on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOblbxEumlk
Rosie Thomas's blog:  http://rosiethomasauthor.com/

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.