The Hairpin (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798470009814)

When two women step out of their predestined paths to alter the destiny of the other, it is all a game of trust.

Yesinia Shams is a freelance epigraphist from India who is entrusted with decoding a mysterious inscription in a secret language on an antique gold hairpin. For centuries, shamans of Central Asia have maintained that this hairpin is wrapped in the darkness of a curse. In the year 1449, during the reign of Emperor Jingtai of the Ming dynasty of China, Yue Xiang, a maiden of noble birth, finds herself torn between filial piety and her love for a painter. Five hundred years apart, the hairpin casts its shadow on the marriages of both Yesinia and Yue Xiang. The two women cross paths again and again on the ancient Silk Road, where death lurks at every turn and where the mystery of the hairpin begins to unravel.

A colourful journey through the vast steppes of Central Asia to the lovely Xinjiang in China, exploring the cultures and cuisines.