The Places In Between

Description

The Places In Between is Rory Stewart's moving account of his death defying walk across Afghanistan in January 2002. Caught between hostile nations, warring factions and competing ideologies, at the time Afghanistan was in turmoil following the US invasion. Travelling entirely on foot and following the inaccessible mountainous route once taken by the Mogul Emperor, Babur the Great, Stewart was nearly defeated by the extreme, hostile conditions. Only with the help of an unexpected companion and the generosity of the people he met on the way did he survive to report back with unique insight on a region closed to the world by twenty-four years of war. Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Award and the Spirit of Scotland Award and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize and the Scottish Book of the Year Prize. 'With a deft, at time poetic vividness, he describes an awesome landscape . . . His encounters with Afghans are tragic, touching and terrifying ? Daily Telegraph

Rory Stewart was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Malaysia. After serving in the British Army, the Embassy in Indonesia and as British Representative in Montenegro, in 2000 he began walking from Turkey towards Bangladesh. He was recently awarded the OBE for his services as British Representative in Maysan, a province in southern Iraq.

This is traveling at its hardest and travel-writing at its best -- David Gilmour With a deft, at time poetic vividness, he describes an awesome landscape, scarred by a present and a past of violence and death . . . His encounters with Afghans are tragic, touching and terrifying * Daily Telegraph * [Stewart] must have balls of steel, but he writes like and angel all the same -- Giles Foden This evocative book feels like a long lost relic of the great age of exploration * Guardian * An astonishing achievement: a unique journey of great courage -- Colin Thubron Wise, funny and marvelously humane -- Michael Ignatieff An insight into the country that few could match * New Statesman * Thank goodness for brave people doing crazy things and for a writer in the tradition of Thesiger and Thubron * Spectator *